A new obstacle course and climbing tower are coming to Stanhope Elmore High School thanks to the Elmore County Commission.
The project is aimed at helping the Stanhope Elmore JROTC program excel, help promote tourism, benefit first responders and help with student team building.
“This is a quality of life project we have been able to add,” Elmore County chief operations officer Richie Beyer said. “It is thanks to other projects running under budget.”
The commission gave the Elmore County Board of Education $250,000 to go towards the project. The board of education and City of Millbrook will commit $25,000 each to the project. The board of education is also supplying the property.
“We bought it back six or seven years ago,” Elmore County Schools superintendent Richard Dennis said. “It ties into the practice field over there, between it and Millbrook Middle School.”
The project was a pipe dream for Stanhope Elmore JROTC instructor retired SFC Wayne Kindley. He retired from the Army in September and was a certified air assault obstacle course instructor. He aided the SE JROTC Raider team to a 13th place nationally in fall without a course. Kindley had presented the idea to school and county officials looking for ways to fund a course not long after he had started as an instructor last fall.
“I was so caught off guard by them telling me that it got approved just because I just retired from the Army,” Kindley said. “Getting the $250,000 project approved in the amount of time we got it approved, yeah, it caught me off guard.”
The obstacle course and climbing tower will offer full course training for JROTC cadets who only can train exercises before going to competitions. It’s a place where the cadets have succeeded. They placed 13th nationally despite having no course to train on.
“It’s impressive really,” Kindley said.
The new tower and course will also allow the Stanhope Elmore JROTC program to host its own competitions. Some competing teams will stay in area hotels and many will eat in the area.
The course, especially the climbing tower will prove valuable to area first responders. Kindley said the tower will prove valuable to SWAT teams who might need to rappel into assignments.
“This project is beneficial to the area on several levels,” Beyer said. “It made it easy for the commission to be able to help.”
The obstacle course will contain cargo nets and ladder climbs. The higher elements will have ground rubber pits to add to the safety element. The course will also allow the cadets to train for a scenario where they carry four rucksacks and a litter simulating removing an injured soldier from the battlefield.
“I can’t wait,” Kindley said. “It’s great for our JROTC program and will also help with team building for so many other groups.”
