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December finish expected for new Ickes Family Life Center

T-L Photo/SHELLEY HANSON WORK ON the new Ickes Family Life Center near St. Clairsville is well underway and is expected to be complete sometime in December. The front of the building is adorned with a large white cross.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Construction of the new Ickes Family Life Center just west of St. Clairsville is going according to plan and is expected to be completed this winter, said Becky Mills, financial secretary of the East Richland Evangelical Christian Church.

“It’s going up good. … The gym block is already done, and they’re working on the outside of the building now,” Mills said. “We have a completion date of December. If all goes well we should meet that.”

Mills said the center is a ministry of the church, located along National Road. It will be used by the church and by East Richland Christian School and the community in general, she added.

She noted people are getting excited about the center now that they can see it going up. Mills said this is not the church’s first major construction project since building either the church or school. A few years ago a new education wing was added to the church.

Ground was broken on the Ickes Center this past April. The project was given a huge boost in the form of $750,000 in seed money from Robert Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy, who also donated another $500,000 in services to get the job started.

Murray is a member of the church, and his company’s headquarters is located within sight of the church and school complex.

The center is being named after Wayne Ickes, who served as minister of the church for more than 50 years, and his wife, Barb. The new center will feature space for athletics and drama in addition to community gatherings.

The facility will offer 28,000 square feet of space. In addition to a full-size gymnasium and a kitchen, it will also have classrooms for the school’s seniors.

Church and school officials say the Ickes Center will help reduce the school’s waiting list, while also attracting new students.

East Richland Christian Schools has an enrollment of about 200 students from elementary through high school. Plans call for high school students to move into the new building, allowing junior high students to move into the current high school to make room for more students in the elementary facility.

East Richland students perform well on standardized tests, and science fair projects are a strength of the program. Students also participate in Math Olympics, College Credit Plus and Speech Meets, but the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math are where the school really stands out, according to school officials.

The school recently received the Governor’s Thomas Edison Award for Excellence in STEM Education and Scientific Research as a result of work performed by a senior at the school, Sadie Lendon. Students typically begin learning the Scientific Method in fourth grade, and start science fair projects in fifth and sixth grades. During seventh and eighth grades, the pupils decide whether to continue on that path of scientific study. Many of those who do will continue to compete at local and even state-level science fair competitions. In Lendon’s case, she was able to conduct ongoing research over a few years. Ultimately, she developed a prototype child safety lock that was created using a 3-D printer.

Classes at the school begin Aug. 23. For more information, call 740-695-2005 for the elementary school or 740-695-2279 for the junior high/high school.

Managing Editor Jennifer Compston-Strough contributed to this report.

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