ROY, Utah — A Roy father is trying to save a building that he believes is an integral part of the community.
The Weber School District is considering tearing down the Roy Jr. High gym because of the high costs of repairing damage and maintaining the building, which was constructed in the 80s.
While students at the school use the gym, it's also utilized for city recreation leagues, a food pantry, and practice spaces for other events. Paul Herrera has four daughters and wants to keep the gym open for them and everyone else who uses it.
"I’d be pretty upset,” said Herrera. “It would be too bad, I don’t know what we would do without having a place to play basketball and for the community to get together and do stuff."
Hererra said his daughter got an email from the school, which read, “The district has made the difficult decision to demolish the old gym and repurpose the space to create a much-needed parking area for our campus."
Herrera reached out to Roy City to ask about the gym plans and appeared at a school board meeting to ask for clarifications and urge members to keep it open.
When the school was rebuilt in 2019, a new gym was constructed inside.
"For us, this is really a luxury to have,” explained Lane Findlay, public information officer for the Weber School District. “To have this type of a space in addition to a brand new school and the big gym that we have there."
Findlay said the fate of this gym is up in the air because it needs some big fixes.
“When you’re talking about replacing the roof, a boiler, air handler, you’re probably in the ballpark of about 3-and-a-half to 4 million dollars that we would need to invest to really maintain the facility and keep it operational for years to come,” he explained. “And that’s just tough in a time where there’s some challenges financially for school districts with declining enrollment, and there’s only so much money to go around."
Lane said the decision has not been made yet on demolishing or deciding what’s next for the space. He also said they are exploring options with Roy City and want public input.
"I think it’d be unfortunate to see it go away,” Hererra added. “Community gathering places are few and far between, so to have another one go away without any replacement, it would be really difficult for the whole community, I think."
"It’s tough when you look at the possibility of losing a building like that that’s used by the community. On the other hand, it’s hard when you’re looking at that type of investment to maintain it,” Findlay said.
Herrera hopes those making the decisions listen to what people who use the gym hope to see.
“In the end, if it’s too much money and we can’t afford it, then so be it," he said, "but we'd like to be able to have a say and keep community assets here."
