Gym conversion creates fitness center

Walking through the halls of Cloquet High School last week, principal Steve Battaglia noted the pending return to school days.

"The timing always seems right," he said.

As summer waned and the $4.7 million reconstruction of the school's outdoor athletic complex neared its October completion, one project inside the building unfolded in relative quiet.

Without tearing down a wall or building an addition, the high school has a new interior fitness center thanks to ingenuity, elbow grease and roughly $15,000 in rubberized flooring.

"The space is phenomenal," Battaglia said. "This is as good a spac...