City clears last hurdle in school project
The new Harding baseball field is expected to open this spring.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The city has received permission from the National Park Service to transfer the operation and maintenance of Wallace Lynn Park to the school board, clearing the last land acquisition hurdle for construction of the new Francis Willard School.
The approval letter from the park service was presented Tuesday to the board of education by Schools Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg.
Federal approval was necessary because the city used a federal grant to acquire the park land, explained Mark Donnelly, school board business manager.
New buildings
The new Willard building will be one of four kindergarten through eighth-grade buildings the school board will build in its $153 million schools construction project. The project will replace all 13 schools with the four K-8 buildings and a new Warren G. Harding High School by mid-2009.
The city is providing the 6.61-acre park off Willard Avenue, Southeast, to complete the 141/2-acre site for the new Willard building as part of a land swap.
In exchange for the city's giving that park to the school board, the school board will give the city the 5.66-acre Turner Middle School site for use as park land in mid-2007 once the state pays to demolish the Turner building.
Ready for spring
The board also heard from John L. Wilson, Mollenkopf Athletic Complex improvement campaign chairman, who announced that the new baseball field in that complex is expected to be ready for play this spring. The campaign's first phase was installation last summer of synthetic turf at Mollenkopf Stadium.
Construction of the new eight-lane track and field will begin this spring with the construction of the new high school adjacent to the current high school, Wilson said. Other elements of the complex will be a refurbished bandshell, new stadium lighting, new tennis courts and a new soccer practice field.
So far, the MAC campaign has raised about $590,000 from a local bond issue, athletic advertising and rental receipts, and individual, group and corporate donations, and an additional $600,000 to $700,000 is needed to complete the project, Wilson said.
Swimming program
Frank Supancic, swimming pool supervisor, announced that the fourth-grade swimming program begins Monday and continues through May. The students will swim at the Reserve Middle School and Harding pools.
The fourth-grade program is being reinstated after many years' absence to help compensate for the loss of the use of pools at the closed YWCA and to prepare students to use the new Harding pool, said Robert L. Faulkner Sr., board president.
When the new 25-by-20 yard, eight-lane pool opens in the new high school, the district may add a seventh-grade swimming program, Supancic said.
milliken@vindy.com