VIDALIA &8212; Not much has outlasted football coach Dee Faircloth at Vidalia High School, but one thing has somehow passed the test of time &8212; the weightlifting facilities.

&8220;I&8217;ve been here 38 years and it&8217;s all we&8217;ve ever had,&8221; Faircloth said. &8220;We&8217;ve never really had a weight room. We couldn&8217;t get more than 20 people in there, so we had to spend all day lifting. Every period of the day we have to lift. It&8217;s tough, but we get it done.&8221;

For years the only room for weights Vidalia has had have been a small corner in the gym, as well as in the middle of a locker room.

One week ago today, the Concordia Parish School Board finally approved a plan totaling $389,800 to build a new building with dressing facilities for the football team and weight facilities for the entire athletic program.

Tom O&8217;Neal, Business Manager for the Concordia Parish School District said it was simply time to get something done.

&8220;This has been going on for a while,&8221; O&8217;Neal said. &8220;We originally tried to build a dressing room, but we looked at what they were in. They&8217;re working out in hallways and in dressing rooms, and it&8217;s almost unsafe. It was a problem.&8221;

Faircloth said the biggest issue he had had with weightlifting was a simple lack of room.

&8220;The main problem was space,&8221; he said. &8220;It was hard to move around in there.&8221;

Numerous projects circulated throughout the last year, but various problems derailed them.

A $100,000 project in conjunction with the Concordia Sheriff&8217;s Office was scrapped in favor of taking out bids last year. When the low bid to come in was nearly $700,000, the school board asked everyone to return to the drawing board.

&8220;It was a combination of issues,&8221; said Concordia School Board Member Jerry Roberts, who has championed a new weight room and dressing room for several years. &8220;You&8217;re on a limited budget. We&8217;d love to have a million dollar building. We tried initially to have a cooperative project with the sheriff&8217;s department, but that got derailed. Politics got involved and we had to go another direction. It just seemed like there was problem after problem.&8221;

Faircloth, however, was unhappy with the snail&8217;s pace the project took to finally get off the ground.

&8220;It could&8217;ve been already built,&8221; he said. &8220;The sheriff&8217;s office had offered to build it for us, but for some reason they decided they couldn&8217;t do it the easy way.&8221;

O&8217;Neal said the school district simply looked at other options for the project.

&8220;The plan changed to have both operations (dressing room and weight room),&8221; he said. &8220;When we looked at the cost and it kept escalating, we had to take a step back and ask what would get us what we want on a quicker scale. We certainly couldn&8217;t spend that much. That&8217;s how we wound up with what we&8217;ve got. We basically stripped it. We reduced everything we could. We projected a cost of $350,000, but I don&8217;t feel like we&8217;ve short-changed the kids.&8221;

&8220;It was something I knew we needed a while back,&8221; said Roberts. &8220;It&8217;s something I&8217;ve been pushing to get for Vidalia. I&8217;m glad it finally paid off.&8221;

Faircloth, however, would have settled for anything as long as it got them in a new building.

&8220;I just wanted four walls, a roof, concrete, and air conditioning,&8221; he said. A coach that was visiting here to recruit years ago said it&8217;s not how big your weight room is, it&8217;s how much work gets done.&8221;