(Atlantic) Atlantic school officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the brand new Trojan Bowl on Friday night.
In April 2019, Atlantic school district patrons passed a $9.5 million bond issue to improve its athletic facility. The School District celebrated the grand opening on Friday night before the school’s first varsity football game on the new field.
The synthetic field turf at Trojan Bowl was not part of the original bond issue, and Rolling Hills Bank and Trust kicked off the fundraising for that part of the project with a $50,000 donation. The Tyler family and Atlantic Bottling Company soon jumped in and donated a $100,000 matching grant, and members from the public followed with donations as well. Jim Tyler and the Tyler family and Rolling Hills Bank representative Keith Honke, along with committee members, members of the school board, and others playing a large part in making this happen were on hand at the ribbon-cutting on Friday night.
The upgrade includes; the renovation of Trojan Bowl with a synthetic surface, new home concessions, ticket booths, restrooms, storage, four-lane rubber track, visitor parking, new ADA compliant bleachers, site paving, lighting and sound, and along with a new scoreboard.
The bond issue also supported a complete renovation of the baseball and softball complex, synthetic turf, a new track and tennis courts at the high school soccer field, and new tennis courts’ construction at the high school.
The baseball and softball field improvements include; new dugouts, batting cages, concessions, press boxes, and a hard-surfaced walkway.
In addition to that, the bond issue also provided for a new parking lot for staff at Washington Elementary and construction of a new bus loading and unloading area to reduce congestion at Washington Elementary and the Middle School.