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Howland Foundation kicks off campaign to improve stadium
By Jordan Cohen
HOWLAND
A Howland foundation has launched a campaign to raise $1.85 million to convert the high-school football stadium into a community sports facility.
“We have already received around $400,000 in commitments, which is 20 percent of our goal,” said Kevin Wyndham, president of the Howland Community Stadium Foundation.
Wyndham emphasized that the foundation is not seeking any help in the form of tax revenue.
“This is all private funding, and no tax dollars are involved,” he said, adding that the school system is too financially strapped.
Superintendent John Sheets, who supports the foundation’s plans, agreed. “We are in difficult financial times,” he said.
During the campaign kickoff, attended by more than 50 people at Leo’s Ristorante on Wednesday, Wyndham said the foundation hopes to complete all of the renovations within three years. The first step is to raise $650,000 for installation of artificial turf and concrete band around it — a project the foundation hopes to complete by next football season.
Ron McCleary, district athletic director, said that during evenings of heavy rain, the field conditions are so poor that the band cannot perform its marching maneuvers and must confine its performances to the end zone.
Wyndham said use of the artificial turf would save the district “more than $1 million in maintenance costs over 10 years — money they can put to other educational purposes,” he said.
Other upgrades in the three-stage plan include the electrical system and stadium lighting, increasing seating capacity from the current 3,450 to nearly 5,000, and improving and increasing the number of restrooms, making them more accessible for people with disabilities.
Wyndham described the football stadium’s current lighting as “woefully inadequate” and used the same phrase to describe its restrooms, which he said fail to meet standards required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. “We’ve been getting an exemption from Trumbull County, but who knows how much longer that will happen,” he said.
Use of the renovated stadium would not be limited to the school district, according to McCleary.
“We can have band concerts, soccer games and do as much as we can with the facility.”
A video during the presentation showed Howland students talking about the problems they have experienced with the stadium amid shots of portable restrooms and bent fences.
“This is all about nothing but the kids,” Wyndham said. “I hope in three years we can get all of this done.”