Logan Elm Braves bond, build pole barn

CIRCLEVILLE — A dozen Logan Elm High School students have completed another pole barn in the community as part of their industrial arts class.

The 12 students participate in Gary Mitchel’s Industrial Maintenance class at the High School. According to Mitchel, this is the 22nd pole barn completed and the largest to date.

The homeowner gets their barn without the cost of labor, minus a banquet at the end of the year. They’re only responsible for any materials, prep work, and beautification work after the fact.

Mitchel called the program special, especially for a “home” high school that’s not a vocational school.

“It’s very rare for a home school to have a program like this,” he said. “You probably can’t find many schools like ours that do this. [The district] provides the transportation, the bus driver and the risk of letting us do something like this. They really make this happen by signing off to let us do this.”

The barn was constructed at Devin and Stacy Braun’s home on Morris Leist Road near Stoutsville. Mitchel said the total budget for materials was about $50,000.

“This is a pretty high-demand project; you really have to move,” Mitchel said. “For most of you, we’ve been done with the barn for about a month and a half. We get two hours a day to work on this, and that’s with travel time.”

Mitchel gave a speech at the banquet, thanking those involved in the project before sharing details of the construction process.

“They’re really trusting us to do this,” he said. “I let them know that it’s going to be a mess and it’s going to be slow when you only have an hour and a half to work. The Brauns have been great, and we appreciate them. To say they’re going to let 12 boys come and give them $50,000 to build a barn is very special.”

Mitchel said the barn built for Braun was the largest they’ve done in terms of square footage. During this time, they’re working on a concession stand for the band boosters at the football field.

“This barn is 56 by 48 feet with a 10-foot liento out front,” Mitchel said. It’s a good-sized barn. We do all the work except the gutters and the garage door. We do the concrete, electric, and framing.”

Devin Braun said the project went great despite any potential hiccups.

“It’s a wonderful built building, structure work is good, and the finish is good all around,” he said. “Now that they’re done with their part I have to go in and do the finish work on my side. By the time the left out of here it’s perfect.”

Mitchel said he’s still looking for a property own for this next year’s school year and for people to reach out to him at the school.

Braun encouraged others to sign up and take Mitchel’s offer.

“Anyone can hire a company to come out and build something,” he said. “Anyone can build a building but if you want to do it and feel like you contributed to a cause to train and develop young people. You not only get the building you want but you’re contributing to the community. You get not only the building but the knowledge that they did it too.”

Zander Jones, 18, a senior at Logan Elm, shared what he liked about the program.

“It shows you a way to not be in an office for the rest of your life,” he said. “It opens doors for you. It was fun doing it, I did it last year, and this barn is a little bit bigger. I liked it.”

Malachi Gibson, 18, senior at Logan Elm gave his thoughts.

“My favorite part is the friendships we make along the way,” he said, “Bonding with them and learning how to do things and how not to be lazy in life.”

Gibson and Jones said he felt great having worked on something that not only looks good but will also be recognized in the community.

“Mitchel told us once to do our best because in 30 years we’re going to drive by with our kids and show them we built this,” he said. “You definitely have that sense of pride seeing it being built from the ground up. It definitely turned out amazing.”

Both boys said the underside of the lien-to gave them some trouble, but they were able to overcome it as part of the project.

“That was definitely a struggle we had to get past,” Jones said.

Both Gibson and Jones encouraged kids to join the program if they’re interested.

“Go for it,” Jones said. “It’s a great program. The bonds you make with the kids in the program and Mitchel are joyful. You’ll have rough days, but I promise you’ll get past them.”

Gibson said he plans to become an electrician after high school. Jones said he plans to join a union or working at Kokosing Materials in Columbus, a construction company.

“I went recently and talked to them and it would be amazing to get into,” Jones said.

Braun said he plans to use the building as a workshop and to store necessary items for the land he manages for his father-in-law.

“I’m going to build a wall in the back third which will become a climate-controlled workshop area,” he said. “I do a lot of land maintenance, about 400 to 500 acres that need maintained. Right now my garage is chalked full of stuff because I don’t have a place to store this stuff. [The pole barn] will free up that space. Right now if I wanted to do work on certain things I’m outside in the driveway. I can now do it all in here now.”