Winchester approves bid for multi-purpose room

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By Carmen Ensinger

Winchester School Board approved a low bid from Midwest Construction of Girard, Ill. for the construction of a new multi-purpose room during a bid opening on Tuesday, July 7.
Winchester Superintendent Jeff Abell said there were around eight or nine submissions.
“We had a lot of competitive bids, but Midwest was the lowest bid,” Winchester Superintendent Jeff Abell said. “The board decided to move forward with their bid.”
The board also approved the name of the new multi-purpose room which will be the “Kerr Ballard Legacy Center.”
Abell explained how this name was chosen.
“From the start of this project, our goal was to not have this multi-purpose building on the tax levy,” Abell said. “This became a much more realistic goal due to a very gracious donation from a local landowner and his wife who donated $1 million dollars to the project.”
The donation of this money, however, came with two stipulations.
“One of those stipulations was that this money go specifically to the multi-purpose room,” Abell said. “The second stipulation was that it be named after Kerr Ballard.”
Abell said the family was able to come up with what he thought was a fantastic name “The Kerr Ballard Legacy Center.”
“So, from this day forward, this building will be known as ‘The Kerr Ballard Legacy Center,’ Abell said.
For those unfamiliar, Kerr Ballard was an 11-year-old Winchester Grade School student who tragically died in July of 2021 in an ATV accident.
As for a timeline for completion, Abell said they hope to be able to have students be able to occupy the new multi-purpose room when school returns from Christmas break in January.
“It is an ambitious timeline, but it seems like a reasonable one,” Abell said. “So, that is our goal – to be in the building and using it when we return from Christmas break.”