Pieces of history in gym flooring saved for posterity
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – It wasn’t easy saving “Farmington” but they did it.

The hardwood floorboards with the name of the town on it came up in strips from the Farmington Community Center, but as some of the teenagers pried the boards from the floor, another team pieced them back together.

Building construction students at Foster Regional Applied Technology Center in Farmington removed pieces of the hardwood-maple gymnasium floor on Monday to be sold as memorabilia.

The floor has seen many events from, championship basketball games and weddings to charity balls and town meetings.

But it was damaged beyond repair after a roof drain failed in September and rain flooded the building. A new hardwood floor is scheduled to be put down in the near future.

Farmington Recreation Director Steve Shible plans to sell pieces of the flooring for $5 on average to anyone interested in them. He plans to get commemorative plates engraved that say something like “Farmington Community Center 1941-2003 Gymnasium Floor.”

He’s also thinking about having “Thanks for the memories” or “Where memories were made” put on the plates.

Shible would like anyone interesting in the floor pieces to give him a call at 778-3464 so he could get a feel for how many pieces are needed and the number of plates he needs to have made.

Shible plans to save the word “Farmington” for history purposes.

Building instructor Mike Fogg said he thought it would be a good project for the students and that it would help the community. So he put a few of the projects he had going on hold and brought his crew to the center.

Students laid out boards and screwed them to the floor to act as a straight edge. Then the cutting began.

While the teenagers were removing boards from the floor with flat bars and hammers, a painting crew from Stevens Painting Service in Phillips removed tape from the edges around the ceiling. Caleb Stevens and his crew had painted the gym’s ceiling over the weekend.

Chris Silva, 18, of Farmington watched as his fellow classmates made the initial cut into the floor.

Silva had felt “pretty bad” when he learned the center was damaged.

“I came here a lot to play basketball and to the Teen Center,” Silva said. “A lot of kids came here after school to play basketball, to hang out and play games.”

Silva added that it felt good to be able to help get the place back up and running.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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