Struthers City Council leases land for new baseball field, track

By Graig Graziosi

ggraziosi@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Struthers City Council will agree to lease land to Struthers Board of Education to develop a track and baseball field.

At a regular committee meeting, council agreed to lease a field on Garfield Street to the school district for 25 years for $1.

Struthers schools Superintendent Pete Pirone Jr. confirmed the school was looking to acquire the land.

“The initial agreement is for a lease on the land, though we’d prefer to own it since we’re going to be investing there,” Pirone said. “It won’t be a problem for us, but we do need to consider future administrations.”

Pirone said the school district has used the field for four years for practice and wants to expand its use.

City Councilman Dallas Bigley, D, at-large, said it was in the city’s best interests to hold onto the land in the event the city needs to develop it in the future.

“The city doesn’t want to lose the land completely, so we decided to lease instead,” Bigley said. “But the city isn’t looking to profit off of the school, which is why we set the cost at $1.”

Pirone said the first phase of development at the site would include installation of turf and track. The school district will begin accepting bids for the job Wednesday.

The second phase of the project would center on construction of a baseball field, though there is no time line yet for that part of the project.

“It’s going to depend on our fundraising efforts,” Pirone said. “We’re going to have a big fundraising push later in the year for the field.”