The Belfield Public School District is in the final stages of purchasing property behind its football field for additional parking.
The school board initially approved the purchase of the property last year, but the process has been on hold due to factors outside of the district’s control.
“They (the owner) had some other issues with it that they weren’t able to take care of. I’m not exactly sure what went on there, but it just didn’t go through right away. Now the county owns it, so we’re going to buy it from them.”
The property, which is located at 109 6th St. NE in Belfield, currently has a home on it that has been vacant for awhile.
“The only reason we were buying it was to tear it down so that when we put in our new grandstand and Crow’s Nest for our football field, we could create more parking,” Kurle said. “We’re going to tear the house down, the fence, the trees, and turn it into more parking for our football games. We’re going to keep the garage just for storage.”
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Once the house, fencing and trees are taken down, the district plans to fill in the property with dirt followed by gravel. Kurle isn’t sure yet how many extra parking spaces it will provide, but thinks the number will be close to 10-15.
Because it’s been about a year since the school board voted to approve the purchase, Kurle is going to ask them to make a motion to do so again at the school board’s next meeting, Thursday night.
Once the motion is made and approved again, the district will officially purchase the property from the county for $20,000.
Kurle hopes to be able to begin the tear-down next spring to have the parking lot ready for the fall 2021 football season.
Completing this project will be the final piece to the district’s football field renovations, which included installing new bleachers and building a new press box.
