Watching Custer’s Elementary School come down the last month and a half is a little bittersweet for Tallgrass Principle Matt. He can remember hunting for garnets while waiting in line to go in the south side door, eating lunch in the old lunch room downstairs, and the big deal when they built the new lunch room / gym! There were a lot of memories for Custer in that building and seeing it go completely away seems like a waste.

Interesting to look back at some of the work we’ve done around this site over the years. We originally worked on a site master plan for the facility which included public meetings, lots of discussion, and a healthy report. This was with Gene Fennell and was super interesting for us to bring our efforts to our hometown. Here’s the Master Plan graphic from that effort.

One thing you’ll notice in that image is a FUTURE POOL! In my mind the pool would have had a climbing wall above it, movie nights, and a zero depth entry. Unfortunately, Custer has never had a Lottery winner so the pool was never that serious of a consideration. However, if you ask around - that pool is the main reason lots of folks in town buy the powerball!

Another project that was interesting for Matt was the sculpture Vigilance from Burning Beetle. Where do you place Vigilance in town? At the time, the end of 4th Street was planned to be the entry of the new Community Center, so it seemed like the logical place. The City agreed and that’s where it was installed. Now we are wondering if we need to move it!

Here’s the plan Matt Made for the Arts Council and Cappie (the artist).