New school complex nears finish

Fans will celebrate 100 years of Leetonia football this fall in a new stadium.
& lt;a href=mailto:tullis@vindy.com & gt;By NANCY TULLIS & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LEETONIA -- As Leetonia Superintendent Lynn King answered reporters' questions on election night, November 1998, there was a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step.
King was jubilant because there would be a new school complex for all the district's nearly 900 pupils. Voter approval for $1.6 million that night opened the door for $15 million from the Ohio School Facilities Commission.
"I've got the shovel in my [car] trunk," King said, laughing as reporters asked when construction would begin.
Nearly six years and some $18 million later, the board of education has finalized construction funding for the 45-acre site by approving a lease-purchase agreement with Farmers National Bank.
The lease-purchase agreement will allow school officials to pay an additional $1.65 million needed for development of the land around the school.
Treasurer Larry Syverson said with careful saving and spending, the district can pay off the lease-purchase agreement sooner than the 22 years allowed. With money set aside since 1999, there is a $1 million balance.
"We haven't spent any money from the general fund," Syverson said. "We weren't going to ask voters for more money and we certainly didn't want to compromise our operating money."
What happened
After voters approved the district's bond request in 1998, a series of design delays, then poor weather, put off the start of construction until May 2000. The delays, however, did not dampen King's enthusiasm for the project.
As heavy machinery rumbled near Orchard Hill School and scooped up the first shovel full of the front lawn, elementary pupils applauded and cheered.
King welcomed the noise and dust outside his office, the movement of earth-shaking equipment and even the mud as signs of progress.
Unfortunately, King died in September 2001, long before his dream of a new school complex became reality.
Tom Inchak became superintendent in January 2002, and he and Treasurer Larry Syverson continued to oversee the construction, and then the first hectic days as all the district's pupils and staff moved to one location in August 2002.
Now there are also a new football stadium, baseball and softball fields, an eight-lane cinder track, and practice fields for football, soccer and bands. The new football stadium boasts new locker rooms, home grandstands with seating for about 1,100 fans, bleacher seating across the field for about 700 visiting fans, a new press box, new lighting and a new scoreboard.
A new weight-training facility is under roof, and the high school alumni association is working on Alumni Square, an area near the football stadium entrance that will be a parklike setting and include some brick and mortar from the now-demolished high school and stadium.
Here's good news
Each day the 45-acres looks more like a school campus and less like a construction site.
"This property looks nothing like it did when we started," Syverson said. "Before we could even think about building anything, we had to raise some elevations quite a bit. Under the football stadium are layers of infrastructure with irrigation and potable water and sewer and electric lines and storm drains. It's like a little New York City under there."
Now baseball and softball players sit in spacious dugouts, hitters aim for the new outfield fences and pitchers hope to keep balls inside the park. Fans may sit either on bleachers around the new fields or on hilly areas created behind the backstops.
The rear of the school complex overlooks the football field. Fans walking to the football stadium from the parking lots this fall will walk downhill into the stadium.
"We excavated to create hills and valleys and I think the effect will be dramatic as people approach the football stadium from above."
The football stadium will be christened this fall as the district coaches, players and fans celebrate 100 years of Leetonia High School football.
Many people believe that Lynn King will be there for that first home football game, still laughing.