New addition for Pekin schools

PACKWOOD - There is a stellar new addition rising above the surrounding landscape a couple miles south of Highway 78.

A new football scoreboard was recently installed at Pekin High School on Tom Stone Field.

Pekin lost its previous scoreboard right before the 2019 football season when straight-line wins destroyed it and caused other damage to the school grounds. The football team played its first game at Ottumwa before a temporary scoreboard was used for later games.

Staff at the school do not believe it was a tornado that caused the havoc last fall. During a fierce rainstorm, the previous scoreboard was ripped from its postings, tore holes in the field and caused damage to the track as well as the baseball outfield fence before being deposited in numerous pieces in the baseball outfield.

Other casualties to the school that day was damage to the bleachers, numerous trees lost their tops and others were damaged, some severely and some not as badly. The playground was marred as well. The tractor shed lost half of its roof, one of its walls while two more were struck and there was equipment damaged. Maintenance men inside the bus barn saw the walls blowing in and out. The ticket booth, which was new, was flipped over. Football equipment was strewn about, an equipment trailer ended up on top of a truck. The tractor shed sustained damage as part of its roof and part of three of its walls were ripped asunder. One of the green houses was demolished and blown against the school building.

Teachers were at a meeting in Ottumwa so there wasn't many people at the school. No injuries were reported.

'It was quite a scene when I was here (that) morning,” athletic director and football coach Brent Blakely said. 'I saw how bad the storm was when I was driving in from Richland. For 20 minutes, it was just terrible.”