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W-F board tables booster club donation

The Weyauwega-Fremont School Board has not yet taken action on whether to accept a donation of fitness equipment from the W-F Booster Club.

When the board met on Nov. 25, it voted to table action until its next committee meeting.

Typically, the board has a Committee of the Whole meeting on the second Monday of the month and a regular board meeting on the fourth Monday of this month.

This month, the board plans to meet once – on Monday, Dec. 23, which means its next Committee of the Whole meeting will be in January.

Board member Neal Loehrke made the motion to table action until the board’s next committee meeting.

In explaining why he believed it should be tabled, Loehrke said the matter had not been discussed at the committee level in detail, with a value number, prior to going before the board for action.

Tim Cullen, president of the W-F Booster Club, made the club’s intention to donate the fitness equipment clear in a letter to the district.

“The Booster Club has voted to donate the fitness center equipment that is stored in the Main Street building (old middle school) to the Physical Education Department at Weyauwega-Fremont School District to use as they see fit. In the event that the fitness center project moves forward, the equipment will be valued at $59,000 toward the Booster Club’s portion of Matching Fund Policy 665,” Cullen wrote.

Some district residents and members of the school board continue to question how much the equipment is worth.

The lightly used fitness equipment was donated to the booster club this year from Experience Fitness.

Experience Fitness donated the equipment to the booster club, because the equipment was the wrong color, Cullen previously said.

He said through the donor and booster club, a value of $59,000 was arrived at for the donation.

Loehrke questioned that estimate.

The booster club then sought a second estimate of how much the equipment was worth.

Julio Marshall, the main buyer for 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment, estimated the value of the donated equipment to be $76,199.

On Nov. 25, Loehrke’s wife, Rachel, spoke on the telephone with Pete Moravec and requested an explanation of 2nd Wind’s appraisal which was used as a reference by the Booster Club.

In an email to Rachel Loehrke, Moravec, who works in corporate purchasing, wrote, “After speaking with Julio, what he was intending to quote you on was what the product would be worth if purchasing new (or replacing like items with new equipment). So what you are actually looking at is a quote at retail value, not used. It sounds to me like there was language confusion between Julio and Neal on what he was to be quoting.

“With the used equipment coming out of a Gold’s Club, it is easy to assume that it has been used much more than home or light commercial facilities. That being said, generally your used equipment is worth about 10 percent of retail value. That is of course a generic rule of thumb and would need to be assessed by someone with commercial fitness equipment experience. Please let me know if there is anything I can assist you with.”

She told the school board she believes the booster club is misleading the public with the estimates it is using.

School Board member Debi Bartel said she wants anyone who has obtained estimates about the value of the fitness equipment to “turn them in ahead of time.”

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