For the past three months, school board officials in the Bellwood-Antis School District have been discussing what should be done with the all-purpose field located between the high school and Myers Elementary School.
\nOver the years, the field has been used extensively for high and middle school physical education classes, junior and senior high and pee wee football practice, track and field practice and events and band practice, and also a prime parking area for visitors to Bellwood-Antis events.
\nAll this traffic has caused the earth to pack significantly, caused a good number of large ruts to appear, and caused an infiltration of rock and stone gravel, thus providing unsafe conditions for those who use the field.
\nThese conditions make it unsafe for students to utilize the field.
\nBut now there\u2019s a solution in sight.
\nAt last evening\u2019s meeting of the board of directors, it was tentatively agreed upon to advertise for landscaping work. A vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
\nAccording to district Business Manager Ken Swanson, a landscaper from LD & C of Ebensburg recently inspected the property and told officials the landscaping would cost between $8,000 and $18,000, depending on the extent of the work.
\nSwanson said the process to remediate the $80,000 square feet of land would include spraying to kill the top layer followed by chisel plowing. Afterwards, the sod would be loosened and 250 tons of top soil would be placed on top. The final part of the plan calls for the spreading of lime, fertilizer, seeding then straw mulch. He added there would be a processes to remove the stone and gravel from the site.
\nThe discussion was met with tentative board approval, although some school board members have said in the past that the district should not hire outside help for the project.
\nThe biggest opponent to hiring an independent contractor was board member Scott Boyer, who was relatively quiet during the discussion last evening.
\nIn January, Boyer compared the school\u2019s green space problem with problems everybody has with their lawns.
\n\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t pay someone to fix your own yard, would you?\u201d he asked. \u201cNo, you would do it yourself, and I think that\u2019s what we need to do here.\u201d
\nJohn Hayes, high school football coach and athletic director, explained the district does not have the manpower or equipment to complete the project itself. He did note the district does have the resources to maintain the field once the work is completed.
\nBoard members also discussed an enclosure for the field. Officials expressed their interest in not using a chain-link fence to circle the perimeter. Board member Donna Tyler said a small wall or cement posts with looped chain could be used.
\nThe district may also consider using the bridge stones that will soon be removed during the upcoming bridge project in Bellwood.
\nOfficials believe the field should be ready for use again in 2004.
\nThe vote will be held at the district\u2019s voting meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the high school cafeteria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the past three months, school board officials in the Bellwood-Antis School District have been discussing what should be done with the all-purpose field located between the high school and Myers Elementary School. Over the years, the field has been used extensively for high and middle school physical education classes, junior and senior high and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}