GN Excavating donates $40,000 to help with Hancock County’s new track and football turf

Gary Nugent of GN Excavating presents annual funds to Hancock County Superintendent Robert Asberry for new track and football field at HCMS/HCHS campus.

Gary Nugent, owner of GN Excavation & Trucking, has agreed to make yearly donations toward the new track and football field at HCMS/HCHS campus, at $40,000 a year, for 10 years, totaling $400,000.

The Hancock County Board of Education had approved the final drawings at the December, 2022 meeting and also announced their decision to give Nugent the naming rights. GN Excavating Hornet Track and GN Excavating Stadium will be the new signage. The current Shaffer Glover Field sign will remain and the GN Stadium sign will be added underneath.

Why Gary Decided to Donate

“The track we’ve got is in horrible shape,” Gary said. “The football field is not in the greatest either so I thought it was something good. That’s why I did it, to help them out. I just thought it was a good thing and I was in a situation to be able to do it so I decided that I would be glad to help out.

The school system was talking about redoing their football field and their track and they needed some money to be able to do it. I was talking with Danny Gray and Robby Asberry; I went up and met with them one day. I said I was interested in doing them both. They needed $20,000 for the track and $20,000 for the football field – per year. It was a total of $40,000 a year. I’m doing it for 10 years so it’s $400,000 total.

I told him (Asberry), as long as we’re fortunate enough to make the profit to have the money to donate, then we’ll continue to do it. If there was a time that we weren’t able to, I’d have to tell him we’re not able to. That’s why we did this yearly.

It’s good if you can donate to the school system. It’s a donation so it’s tax deductible. It costs a little bit but it’s for the school. That’s why we did the diesel program, here awhile back, is to try to get kids where they could work on trucks and stuff so we could have future employees, to build the workforce.”

Diesel Program

Hancock County Schools Transportation Director Brice Duncan offers a diesel program to students at the bus garage at HCHS and they are teaching students how to work on diesel motors. “I donated money in order for them to build onto the bus garage – a classroom out in the shop to teach kids in,” Gary said.  Nugent also donates $10,000 a year toward the diesel program.

By Jennifer Wimmer