Along with the annual school budget vote, Lewiston-Porter Central School District residents will vote this Tuesday on a new $11.15 million capital improvement project involving the district’s athletic facilities and new solar panels.
Proposition 2 would install new turf and shock pad at Blakeslee Stadium, costing a combined $1.35 million, new turf, fencing, and a scoreboard for the Elia Stadium, costing $3.5 million, lighting repairs costing $500,000, adding more solar panels to building roofs, costing $1.99 million, and work on the high school’s loading dock, at a price of $80,000.
“We feel this project is not putting undue burden on the taxpayers,” said Superintendent Paul Casseri during a presentation at the Lew-Port school board’s May work session.
Blakeslee Stadium, mainly used for the district’s football team, had its turf installed in 2007 and it has outlived its lifespan.
Elia Stadium, used by the soccer and lacrosse teams, currently has a grass field. Casseri said it was the only such grass field in Western New York.
“When our teams compete against other schools, it’s on turf,” Casseri said, with the soccer community reportedly saying the field needs turf. “When they get into sectional competitions, all those competitions are on synthetic turf.”
Other work for Elia Stadium includes new fencing with a new entrance gate, a new video scoreboard, and replacing four lighting poles.
The $1.99 million of solar panels will be placed on the middle school and intermediate education center roofs. The district had previously spent $1.2 million on installing solar arrays on the high school and primary education center roofs, which was completed during the 2022-23 school year.
Casseri said they would see immediate revenue once they are up and producing solar power, including by selling some of the generated power onto the grid for credits.
The district had recently completed a $17.25 million project that installed new air conditioning systems in the middle school and intermediate education center over the last three years. Its original scope included proposed work on the athletic fields, but they went out to bid right after the COVID-19 pandemic and were unable to find a suitable bid.
The district plans on making a $650,000 upfront payment and borrowing the remaining $10.5 million. Each year from the 2026-27 fiscal year through 2040-41, the project will carry an estimated local share between $277,073 and $282,073 as part of the general fund.
Future projects Casseri said they would into as debt from other projects rolls off are upgrading the auditoriums and the baseball diamonds.
“The facilities don’t belong to me, they don’t belong to the school board, they belong to the community,” Casseri said. “We’re here to maintain these and make sure that these facilities are state of the art and are meeting the needs of our students.”