LEETONIA School board holds off hiring firm to design athletic facilities

The board is accepting bids for high school demolition.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LEETONIA -- Leetonia school board will delay hiring an architectural firm to design its new athletic facilities until its Nov. 20 meeting.
The board has interviewed three firms and had said it planned to hire one this week.
Superintendent Tom Inchak said, however, that the board is still negotiating with one of the firms. The next board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at the new school complex.
Plans for the athletic complex include a new football stadium and track, and other items such as an outdoor basketball court or gazebo as funds allow.
Contractors are working on the new softball and baseball fields next to the district's new kindergarten-through-12th-grade school on Walnut Street.
The baseball and softball fields were lost to construction two years ago, and plans are for the fields to be ready for play in the spring.
Alternative sites
For the past two years, boys played baseball home games on fields in the Salem city parks system, and girls played softball on fields at Washingtonville Elementary. The district has since sold the Washingtonville property.
The board is planning a new football field and track because there are plans to demolish the old high school and sell the 3.6-acre corner lot, including the football stadium property. The property can't be developed, however, until the new football field is ready.
The board is accepting bids for the demolition of the old high school.
School officials have set aside about $520,000 of the district's permanent improvement levy revenue for athletic fields development since 1998, when school officials learned the state would fund the new school.