needs fund for community building

? The old, brick building that stands on the eastern edge of this small town could benefit from a little elbow grease.

But all the good old-fashioned grit in the Douglas County countryside won’t help much if the Big Springs Community Assn. can’t rustle up enough money to fix the leaky roof and rotting soffits on the one-room schoolhouse it wants to transform into a gathering place for this community of some 250 people.

“We desperately need funds to get the roof and soffits in order,” said Crystal Kennedy, association secretary/treasurer.

Benevolent business owners recently donated the manpower, equipment and supplies to run a new water line to the 75-year-old school. With the building’s toilets and sinks in working order for the first time in years, the association hopes to soon begin drawing community members and their wallets to chili suppers, pancake feeds and ice cream socials to raise funds for the restoration.

In the meantime, the association could use a few charitable donations to foot the roof repair bill, which should run somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500, Kennedy said.

In August, a deal fell through in which Lecompton Township would have given the association $25,000 to restore the schoolhouse and maintain an overgrown baseball field out back. In return, the township would have built a garage on the property to house its road grader, tractor, dump truck and backhoe. But the association and Big Springs community members opted to raise the money on their own.

Many folks around here either recall time they spent in the one-room schoolhouse or know someone else who did.

Take Iona Spencer. Her husband, Vernon, who died in 1993, was schooled there in the late 1920s. The couple’s three children attended the school until 1965, when it consolidated with Tecumseh Township in Shawnee County.

Though the association plans to devote whatever funds it raises to building maintenance  not necessarily to historically accurate restoration  decades of students’ memories won’t be forgotten. The association would like to include space for a modest library and at least a spot on the wall to document school history.

“I’ve got a lot of pictures of students in school there,” said Spencer, Lecompton Township historian. “Maybe we could frame them and hang them up.”

The association’s interest doesn’t stop with the structure; the ball diamond out back has a makeover in its future as well. Spencer remembers its golden years in the 1940s, when she played softball there. Standing at home plate now, a batter can see vehicles zipping down Interstate Highway 70. Back then, “there was no interstate,” Spencer said.

Revitalizing the field should draw more youngsters to what association president Marvin Grandstaff and others in Big Springs hope soon will be the community’s official center.

“Hopefully, we’ll get that up and going and try to make it an activity center for the kids again,” Grandstaff said. “Everybody in the community is helping out, trying to be involved. Like anything else, it takes awhile to get things rolling. But I think we’re on the way.”