By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

A $7 million project that would have brought an indoor practice field and storm shelter to Missouri Southern State University’s campus is on hold — indefinitely.

MSSU President Bruce Speck announced the move during a faculty senate meeting Monday afternoon, and later during a meeting of the budget and audit subcommittee of Southern’s Board of Governors.

Speck said the university “thought we had a donor to help us” complete the project, but the potential donor stated last week that it wasn’t interested.

Downstream Casino

Speck confirmed in an interview Tuesday that the donor the university had been looking to was Downstream Casino Resort, which is just west of Joplin in Oklahoma.

“I started talking to them early on, and one of the issues was ‘casino’ in the title if there was a naming, and so on,” he said, adding that a contingent from the university met last week with representatives from the casino. “My understanding is they said this wasn’t something they wanted to pursue.”

MSSU Athletic Director Jared Bruggeman said he was under the impression that the casino planned to be a direct financial contributor.

“I’ve only been here a little over three months,” he said. “But I was under the impression there was going to be a financial contribution.

“It’s unfortunate (the project is on hold), but with the economy being what it is, it’s not hard to understand. There may be other projects of more need.”

Sean Harrison, a spokesman for Downstream Casino Resort, said the company “never committed any financial contribution” to the project.

“What we wanted to do, and what we still want to do, is help out with fundraising,” he said. “Nothing has really changed. We’re still willing to help. We’re just waiting to see what will happen with the project.”

Harrison said tension on the campus — which resulted Monday in an overwhelming faculty vote of no confidence in Speck’s leadership — “hasn’t made any difference to us.”

Storm shelter

The project initially began with a $2 million appropriation from the Missouri Legislature to build a storm shelter for student athletes and coaches, according to state Sen. Gary Nodler of Joplin.

Nodler said a committee appointed by former MSSU President Julio Leon identified the need for a storm shelter after a series of incidents in which up to 100 athletes and coaches were caught on the Fred G. Hughes Stadium grounds during lightning strikes.

“The state appropriated $2 million, with the only restriction being that those funds be used to build some sort of inclement weather shelter for athletes,” Nodler said. “That’s what the appropriation is for. It is for no other purpose than that.”

Speck said that once the money was received, the plan was expanded to include an indoor practice field to “serve two purposes.”

“We wanted to do something dual-purpose,” he said. “And as we went through the planning process, the cost just mushroomed.”

MSSU already has spent roughly $400,000 on architectural plans for the structure, Speck said.

“One of the reasons it’s that high is there had to be a great deal of dirt work done at that location,” he said. “We could go ahead and spend the rest of that and have a very nice site, but no building. And that was Sen. Nodler’s concern, and I agree there.”

A suggestion was made at the budget and audit committee meeting that the site on the south side of Newman Road would provide a better location for a planned medical school than one on the north side of the road.

“The drainage is going to be there whether you have this facility or the medical school,” Speck said. “There’s no sewer in over there (on the northeast side of the campus), so it’s all surface drainage when you have heavy rains.”

Nodler said the university has an obligation to spend the state funds for a storm shelter.

“Frankly, this money should have been expended prior to July 28, or at least committed,” he said. “It’s also possible that changes in personnel at Missouri Southern have created a loss of institutional memory in regards to what that money was intended for.”