GALION — Concern was raised regarding overspending on athletic facilities during the Northmor Board of Education meeting Tuesday evening.
The concerns were raised amid the continuing work on the district’s outdoor athletic complex upgrade project.
The $2.7 million project will provide upgrades to the facilities such as relocating the baseball and softball fields, fixing drainage and landscaping issues, repaving parking lots, resurfacing the track and installing news lights and turf at the football stadium.
Area resident Garry Pfleiderer said while many community members are supportive of upgrades to the district’s facilities, he said he and others believe project items such as the football lights and turf replacement is reckless spending.
“This is supposed to be a facilities upgrade, and a lot of people are ok with the pump house, the landscaping issues, the drainage issues and stuff like that,” Pfleiderer said. “But the football field, at the time, was listed at $1.2 (million), but that number changed tonight, and everyone I’ve talked to is not in favor of the football field. It’s just too much money.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Northmor Superintendent Chad Redmon said the current estimation for the football field renovations is approximately $850,000.
In a newsletter released to the district, Redmon said the district is totaling more than $6 million in projected savings and has earmarked a portion of that money for the athletic facilities project.
“We’re very financially sound for the foreseeable future,” Redmon said.
Redmon said the project would be able to be done with little-to-no burden on the taxpayers. He said the five-year forecast presented to the board showed financial stability until year five when deficit spending is shown, which Redmon said is very common among most districts for various reasons.
Pfleiderer said he and others feel the money should be spent on district needs and the turf is seen as a “want.”
Redmon said he could see the viewpoint of those who classify the update as a want.
“Is it an absolute necessity for the district? It’s not,” Redmon said. “It’s a want and a need, both. We want to do something special for our community. We have the Cadillac of buildings. We have a beautiful K-12 facility, but…our outdoor facilities are dated. They need updated and our students and community deserve that.”
Hosting OHSAA events such as playoff football games also is a plan with new artificially turfed fields. Redmond said it would be an opportunity for additional revenue.
Pfleiderer said he does not believe hosting such events would make a realistic impact on the 10-year loan on the project, especially because of the district’s location making it relatively difficult travel for other schools.
Redmond said replacing the grass sod on the field, along with upkeep would be financially similar to long-term care and maintenance of the turf field.
“People find it hard to believe,” Redmond said. “But there was not a big cost difference between us doing turf versus re-sodding the entire field.”
He also said turf would no longer require an employee lining the field for each home contest.
Based on visits to other districts, Redmon said turf traditionally lasts between 8-10 years. With Northmor not having sports such as soccer, the administration believes the turf could last 10-12 years.
“The replacement cost is also less than the initial as the base for the field, such as drainage is already in place,” Redmond said. “We would have to start putting away a rainy-day fund over the next 10 years to prepare for that.”
During the board meeting, the board passed an agreement with Makeever and Associates to serve as an engineering consultant for the outdoor facilities upgrades.
The board’s next meeting is Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. in the district central office located in the old high school.