Dist. 300 Takes Possession of Big 'S' Property

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin Community Unit District 300 took possession of the large Big "S" transportation property immediately south of VanMetre Field on February 8, and clearing has already begun which will facilitate the construction of an enlarged athletic complex.

The acquisition is part of the school district's $18 million Du Quoin High School capital construction project.

The acquisition will facilitate moving the current home of the Baseball Indians currently behind the high school to the new Big "S" site in the coming months.

The northernmost part of the existing baseball field will become part of the footprint for the new two-story high school academic building.

The new $1.2 DHS vocational education building on South Line Street is expected to be completed in April.

The new footprint for the property moving west from the vocational building will include: 1.) a new girls' softball field 2.) a relocated football and band practice field, and 3.) a new baseball field to the Indians.

A new all-weather athletic track around VanMetre Field will move the existing footprint of VanMetre Field slightly to the south, as well.

The far west edge of the Big "S" property will be the new home to the district's transportation company--MV transportation. An existing shop in very good condition will be the maintenance building for those vehicles.

A district spokesman said this morning that George's Excavating has already begun clearing the Big "S" site.

Much of that work involves digging out the old foundations of what years ago was the W.R. Hayes-owned Midwest Dairy and Ice Cream manufacturing site.

There was an ice plant on the east side of the main building, as well. That complex burned in the 1980s.

Paul Lunsford, the district's architect, is hoping to have a new drawing of the site's athletic footprint sometime today.

The newspaper will publish that drawing when it becomes available.