The Goodman community will celebrate a new beginning rather than a tragedy on April 4.
Goodman Elementary principal Samantha Hamilton told those gathered at the Goodman City Council meeting Tuesday night that a ground-breaking ceremony will take place on the first anniversary of the Goodman tornado.
Instead of being a reminder of the tragic day in which the school was destroyed, school officials are determined to make the day memorable in a favorable way. A new school will be built on the same site as the former school, Hamilton said. All 300 school children will be bused to the former site for the ground-breaking. Afterward, the group will travel to the Goodman ballpark for a field day, complete with a picnic.
All the food is donated by local banks and Tyson Foods, and the event is open to the public.
The school children will be attired in their special T-shirts, which were printed after the tornado occurred. The children will throw eco-friendly confetti at the ceremony.
"We wanted to make it a moving-forward day," Hamilton said.
The facility will be 10,000 square-feet, larger than the former building, she said, complete with a FEMA-approved shelter, which will serve as a gym. Three kindergarten classes also will be FEMA rated, so they could be utilized during the day as a tornado shelter, while the community could use the gym-shelter, she said.
Completion date is set for August 2019, she said.
In other business, city council members approved a special family-friendly event to be hosted by Banner Church. Pastors Dennis and Charlene Bergen and their church members want to reach out to the community with free hot dogs by Barking Pig, an inflatable jumping house, and activities for families.
"We support any event that promotes faith and family," said Mayor Greg Richmond.
Aldermen also denied approval for Liwy Diras to use the ballpark on Aug. 11, agreed to research the cost of UTV permits and will place a public notice in the newspaper regarding a possible condemnation at 108 W. Williams.
General News on 03/22/2018