The first time someone threw a baseball into the metal door at Barton Community College’s Kirkman Center, it may have been an accident. But today, Athletic Director Trevor Rolfs has dozens of photos of damaged walls, heavy vinyl curtains, and the aforementioned door, all of them pocked or broken from the hundreds of baseballs, softballs and soccer balls that have been hurled without a thought or care about the damage being done.
The Kirkman Student Activity Center was built in 1995. Had the college administrators known then what this building would become – an “unofficial YMCA” where community members can drop in any time it’s open and shoot hoops or practice their chosen sport – they might have built it bigger and better. But that would have required tax dollars, and the Kirkman was built with donated funds.
So now this building is showing its age, and some capital improvements have been scheduled. But Rolfs told college trustees on Thursday he’s concerned about how the public has treated this building. If the college repairs the damage caused by hard use and some misuse, it can be used for years to come. But if unsupervised vandals try to tear it up again, the public may lose the generous use of this facility.
Rolfs and BCC trustees agree that public use of the building is a good thing, so any new guidelines will try to keep the doors open. Those who use Kirkman must do their part.