MCDONALD BOE to vote on levy for new sports complex

The project's estimated cost is between $1.75 million to $2.5 million.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
McDONALD -- The McDonald Board of Education will meet in special session at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the high school library to consider the first resolution necessary to place a levy on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The levy will be to pay for a proposed new sports complex for the school district. Plans are to replace the high school football stadium, built in 1950, and to replace a cinder track, which has not been used for meets for nine years because it is in disrepair. Wasser told the board in June the district would get the largest track possible, but it wouldn't do it cheaply.
Superintendent Michael Wasser told the school board in June he anticipated a price between $1.75 million to $2.5 million for the proposed sports complex and related facility improvements.
Other plans are to replace the basketball court bleachers and six locker rooms at the high school, both of which were installed in 1968.
The locker rooms are on the first floor for physical education classes and on the basement level next to the Blue Devil Room at the high school.
Other renovations
The improvements will also provide for a new bus garage to house the district's school buses. The buses are now being housed free of charge at McDonald Steel, at the end of Ohio Avenue, but there is no electricity or heat in the storage structure.
The buses had previously been stored at the old Roosevelt Elementary School building, which was razed a year and half ago after the new elementary school building was opened.
Treasurer Thomas Radabaugh also explained in June that if a new track is built, it will be lighted and open for use by village residents, providing there are no school track events.
The board will meet Monday after the special meeting in executive session to discuss architects who have presented plans to the board for the complex. No architect has yet been chosen for the project, Radabaugh said.
Wasser said he has searched the district's property and other sites in the village and could not locate any area where an eight-lane, all-weather track can be built.
He said a six-lane track is more realistic and is likely to be at the site of the current track at the stadium on Seventh Street.