Project Spotlight: Palmyra Sports Complex

The Palmyra community recently unveiled their new athletic stadium as part of a larger $5.4 million athletic facilities project. The project includes ballfields, competition track, artificial turf playing field, a playground, and a walking path. The project is shared by the village and the school. Beatrice Ready Mixed has supplied 1,500 yards of concrete for building pads, parking lots, driveways, curbs, track runways and sidewalks. The complex is still under construction and will require another 1,500 yards of concrete before completion.

The project has drawn extra attention as the district was set to ask voters to approve a bond issue for funding but found out the Olson Foundation had gifted $5.4 million to cover the cost. The gift happened because Leland Olson, and his family, never forgot how the people of Palmyra and the school helped him while attending the high school. After his father passed, Olson was set to quit school to help run the family business. The community worked with him to help him graduate. He later went on to graduate from college and received a degree from the Nebraska Medical Center.

Olson died in 2013 but his family kept tabs on the community and school and surprised everyone with the gift.