AFTER 16 YEARS, `NEW GYM' TO GET NAME

After 16 years, the Cape Girardeau Central High School new gym may have a "real" name.

Renaming the structure is among action items on the Board of Education agenda for Monday's meeting. The proposed name is Tiger Fieldhouse.

The recommendation has been a long time coming.

A suggestion to name the school's athletic complexes came out of an athletic task force that met in the summer of 1989.

In January 1992, Athletic Director Terry Kitchen formed a committee to generate suggested names for the gym. In the process, students jumped in too, asking for a "real" name for the gym.

"We all got together and took names from the community from the students and discussed them and talked about them and that's what we came up with," said Kitchen.

"A facility as nice as what we have deserves a better name than `new gym,'" said Kitchen.

Besides, he said, construction of the gym was completed in 1977. "It's not that new."

This year the gymnasium received a new wooden floor. It seemed a good time to name the facility, Kitchen said.

He hopes to name the school's old gym next.

The board meets at 5 p.m. in the Board of Education conference room, 61 N. Clark.

Other items on the agenda include an outline of summer maintenance projects, a summary of adult education efforts and a discussion of Senate Bill 380.