OAKES, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The last Oakes Public School Board meeting approved a resurfacing of the Oakes High School track.

The school board allocated $289,241 to include “the milling and pavement of asphalt followed by a Poly Mat polyurethane base mat application,” according to the Oakes Public School Facebook page.

It’s been a project years in the making now. Oakes High School has been unable to host a track meet since May, 2018 according to Oakes Public School (OPS) Superintendent Kraig Steinhoff. The track’s surface needed to be repaired and needed cracks filled in. Even after the cracks were filled in, problems remained.

“The surface [was] too hard in comparison to other tracks we attend like Valley City, Lisbon, Ellendale, Wahpeton, Kindred and Casselton,” said Steinhoff. “Then discussions ensued of how we need to remember where schools choose where they go to track meets. So it’s not like we can say ‘well we’re gonna host a meet and force people to come.’ The reality is that they go where the quality facilities are,” added Steinhoff.

OPS had an assessment done of the track and found the asphalt needed to be completely redone and the rubber coating needed to be updated. The rubber coating alone was going to be 90 thousand dollars. With the asphalt being added to the bill, the project faced another obstacle.

“The board wrestled with that for a long time and we had candid conversations about are we gonna not have a track and not have meets anymore and just travel all the time,” said Steinhoff.

Ultimately the board decided to approve the project. The resurfacing’s schedule completion is the end of the 2020 summer and should be ready for usage in spring of 2021.

Listen to the complete interview with Steinhoff below.