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Local ironworkers will continue to picket Boardman stadium project
BOARDMAN
Members of a local ironworkers union will continue to picket near the high-school campus for what they say is a failure on the part of Spartan Stadium project leaders to use local workers to install bleachers at the sports facility now under construction.
“It’s just a disappointment,” said Tony Deley, president of Ironworkers Local 207.
His complaint is that Dant Clayton Corp., a Kentucky-based company that specializes in bleacher design and manufacture that was awarded the contract for that part of the stadium project, is using nonlocal workers to install the bleachers at the site off Nisonger Road.
The project, for which construction started a month ago, will add a new stadium with 4,100 home seats, 3,000 visitor seats, a scoreboard and a press box. The total estimated project cost is about $3.5 million, which is being funded entirely through private donations raised by the booster club.
“Our local community supports our local businesses. ... I didn’t see a donation from Kentucky,” Deley said. “I think in the beginning, they should have asked for a bid from local contractors.”
The use of nonlocal workers, however, was a choice by Dant Clayton, not project leaders, said Tim Saxton, director of operations for the school district.
“This is a community project,” Saxton said. “We strongly believe in using local workers when the decision-making authority is in our hands.”
He stands by the choice to give the contract to Dant Clayton, saying the school district has worked with the company on other projects. He said the company was the first choice of leaders of this project for some time.
“We have an excellent working relationship with them,” he said. “They custom-design, custom-engineer, manufacture and then install your bleachers for you. They have chosen to use nonlocal workers. We do not have a choice in that.”
He highlighted the use of local companies for other parts of the project, saying workers from Diamond Steel Construction Co. of North Lima, for example, was on-site.
Union members, who picketed earlier this week, also plan to picket near the site when bleacher-installation begins.