Thomas More Prep-Marian has recently had to find new venues to hold basketball games, wresting and other school events. One of these venues is the Hays High gym.

“The fire marshal shut them down,” principal Martin Straub said. “They lowered their gym capacity to less than 50 and said they needed another fire exit, which they are putting in now.”

The first TMP event to be hosted at Hays High will be a basketball game Feb. 14.

“We are working with them for another couple of dates and the other events will be hosted at Hays Middle School,” Straub said.

Initially, TMP was under the impression they would be back in their own gym before the beginning of January. As of now, the TMP gym isn’t thought to be done before the end of basketball season.

“It is taking longer than they thought,” Straub said. “The fire marshal gave them the news in November. I called and asked if they needed help and heard back a few weeks ago when they took me up on the offer. They asked for four dates, but two of the four we have games.”

Hosting the TMP events at Hays High is mutually beneficial.

“There is no expense for them” Straub said. “We kind of benefit from it because we do concessions. There is no expense for use other than lights but gym lights are normally on.”

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