For nearly a decade, Clancy School’s former gym has sat empty, and for the last three years a group of concerned community members have set out to change that.
In January, a group of community members – including Jefferson Local Development Corporation Executive Director/Child Care Coordinator Lindsey Graham, JLDC Project Coordinator Leah Lewis and Clancy community members Mickey Senechal, Dani Morris and Chris Davis – approached the Jefferson County Commissioners hoping to move the gym restoration project forward.
The first thing the group was looking for, according to Commissioner Cory Kirsch, was money to replace the gym floor. Beyond some financial backing, the group also hoped the County would secure a lease on the building.
“The Commission agreed we did not want another building to manage,” Kirsch told The Monitor following the meeting. “We suggested they form a non-profit to lease and manage the building and let the Commission help with funding when necessary.”
While the commissioners chose not to take on the building, Mickey Senechal said Clancy Elementary School, which currently owns the gym building, is willing to lease the Old Gym for 99 years at the low, low price of a dollar. Throughout the duration of the lease, the school would continue to insure the building, Senechal said.
The Clancy Old Gym project was also presented to Southwest Montana Youth Partner’s board to be repurposed for child care.
“They are interested in hearing more and seeing the numbers for the gym modifications,” Graham told The Monitor, adding that Lewis at the JLDC is temporarily holding some ARPA grant funding for the Clancy Gym working group while they see if they can find a non-profit to take over the 99-year lease.
The Clancy Old Gym is a 50-by-100-foot metal building with two restrooms, two showers and a large storage area in addition to the gym itself.
Adam Senechal, owner of Golden Eagle Construction, determined that the building is structurally sound and invited subcontractors to give a ballpark estimate of the costs to redo the building’s plumbing, heating, lighting and flooring. While the building’s pipes are shot, Mickey Senechal said the heaters could be functional, albeit less efficient than models currently available.
On March 8 at 6 p.m. in the Boulder City Hall, the Southwest Montana Youth Partners board of directors will meet and the Clancy Old Gym project may be discussed again, according to Board President Drew Dawson.
Were the Clancy Old Gym to reopen, it could help solve a countywide problem: gym space.
“I know there are a lot of people throughout Jefferson County, especially Clancy, that would love to see the Gym fixed up and open for use. We all know how hard it is to find gym space,” Graham said.
The Jefferson County Little Guy Wrestling program is one of such organizations struggling to find gym space, and program secretary Samantha DeWit thinks the Clancy Old Gym could be a viable option.
The only obstacle the program would need to overcome, DeWit said, is mat storage. “We would either need to be able to leave the mats set up for our six-week season, or have the ability to store them there. But if those two obstacles were satisfied we would love it,” she told The Monitor.
So invested in finding gym space, DeWit said the Little Guy Wrestling program said the organization could potentially donate funds or help fundraise for the Clancy Old Gym project.
Other local organizations have also made investments into the project, such as the Clancy Days Committee, which donated $1,200 to the Old Gym in December 2022.
Beyond little guy wrestling, Mickey Senechal said the gym could have many uses: Basketball, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse and pickleball practices or games; community gatherings; the North Jefferson County Library District’s Summer Reading Program kick-off; polling places; craft bazaars; reunions; receptions; private parties; and more.
“It is our intention that money would be raised through rentals and fundraisers for upkeep and maintenance of the building,” Senechal said.
A long time coming
Revitalizing the Clancy Old Gym is a project that has been several years in the making.
The gym – built in 1965 – was used as Clancy School’s main gym until the new athletic facility was built in 1993, according to Clancy School District Clerk Jennifer Goehring. After switching to the new facility, the school utilized the old gym for events. Senechal added that the space was also used for adult recreational sports, cub scouts and private gatherings.
Use of the gym came to a halt in 2009 when the building’s pipes froze and the school board chose to forego fixing them and use the building for storage instead, Goehring said.
Work to revive the Clancy Old Gym began in May 2019 when a group of concerned parents hoped to restore the building to its full potential. Even then, practice space was a commodity in short supply.
“It’s actually very hard to find [a] spot for kids to practice,” Morris told The Monitor in 2019.
Work to restore the gym hit a slight stumbling block when “environmental testing found the presence of asbestos and other ‘contaminants of potential concern,’” according to a July 2019 article in the Boulder Monitor. The abatement cost was estimated to be $40,987, covered by grants from the Brownfields program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and facilitated by the Department of Environmental Quality.
By October 2019, the group of concerned parents and community members were developing a plan “to retain the basketball court” and to dispose “of the furniture being stored in the facility.”
Abatement work began in January 2020 and was expected to wrap up after two weeks of work. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic then brought a halt to the group’s progress, according to Senechal.
Three years after the Clancy Old Gym restoration project began, the concerned individuals and members of the JLDC still have quite a bit of work to do.
For now, Graham said they will continue to research potential ownership options, funding solutions, remodeling costs and other companies to work with.
