Stadium upgrade makes up bulk of Poland renovations

By Denise Dick

The president of the All-Sports Boosters Club views the stadium plan as a positive for the community.

POLAND — A $1.9-million-dollar renovation to the football stadium is the largest piece of the school district’s plans to improve all buildings.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Zorn said the cost for all the improvements is about $3 million, most of which will be borrowed and paid back over an estimated 15 years.

Zorn, at the school board’s direction, gathered input from teachers, PTA members, principals and staff from all of schools buildings to determine priority projects in each building.

At the high school, priority one is the addition of two classrooms estimated at $300,000. The second priority was the stadium improvements expected to total about $1.9 million, though the cost could decrease if the board decides not to move forward with all of the stadium items. The estimate is based on information from Strollo Architects of Youngstown.

The total includes increasing the number of home side bleacher seats from 2,000 to 3,000. Twenty handicapped-accessible seats are among that number. The stadium doesn’t have any ADA-compliant seats, the superintendent said.

Dennis Reardon, president of the Poland All-Sports Boosters Club, sees the stadium improvements as a positive plan. Two of his children are Poland graduates and a third is in eighth grade.

“In our football program, they are stepping up in playing some better teams,” he said.

One of those teams, Steubenville, for example, attracts a large crowd to its away games. The additional seating will accommodate those larger audiences.

“At our home games, we have more kids and adults standing at the end zone than in the stands and the stands are full,” Reardon said.

The stadium project also coincides with a plan by the Poland Bulldog Turf Club to install artificial turf at the high school field. The group, of which Reardon also is a member, is raising private donations for the turf project.

Installation of the turf is to start next month and Reardon says it will increase the annual uses of the field.

Besides home varsity football and soccer games played there, the new turf will allow junior varsity and freshmen teams as well as the seventh- and eighth-grade football teams to hit the high school field too, he said. The younger teams now play at Baird-Mitchell Field the middle school to reduce the wear and tear on the grass field.

The combination of the turf project and stadium improvements will put Poland on par with some other schools in the area that have similar facilities, such as Canfield.

“The stadium is 25 years old,” Reardon said. “Places need upgraded.”

The project tentatively also calls for the addition of a press box and a pedestrian walkway leading through the stadium, renovations to lockers, construction of public restrooms on the visitors’ side of the stadium, additional concession equipment, renovations to the ticket booth, a press box, an expanded parking lot and the extension of utilities. The school board could opt not to pursue all of the options depending on the prices submitted through bids.

“Right now, we have public restrooms on the home side and Port-a-Johns on the visitors’ side,” Zorn said.

The other schools will see improvements also.

Lockers for pupils will be replaced at the middle school along with the completion of window replacement.

At McKinley Elementary School, roof replacement will be finished and music practice rooms will be remodeled.

Dobbins Elementary School will get new dry-erase boards and foam sound pads for the gymnasium and North Elementary School will see a painted gym and installation of security doors. Union Elementary School’s windows will be replaced and the district offices, which are moving to the high school, will be converted into classrooms to accommodate all-day kindergarten. Plans also include renovations at the high school to move school district offices there from Union.

The North improvements, music room remodeling at McKinley and completion of window replacement at the middle school will be paid for out of the general fund rather than the permanent improvement money.

The projects will be done between this year and 2009 depending on availability of materials and contractors.

“My best estimate is that by Sept. 1, 2009, the plans we have will be done,” the superintendent said.