SALAMANCA — Attendees of the luncheon last week at the Salamanca Area Senior Center had the opportunity to ask questions about the new proposed capital project by the Salamanca City Central School District that would include renovations to Veterans Memorial Park.
On May 21, residents of the district will vote on a no-additional-tax-impact referendum for the next phase of the $34.7 million capital project for work at Vets Park, Prospect Elementary and several areas of the main campus on Iroquois Drive.
This was the third of six scheduled meetings where school district officials presented on the upcoming vote and answered questions from community members during the past two weeks.
The presentation at the senior center began with a short presentation by District Superintendent Robert Breidenstein summarizing the process the district, city, Seneca Nation of Indians and multiple school and community groups went through over the past two years leading to the planned vote.
Proposed plans for the project would include new fields and facilities at Vets Park, as well as additional parking, two box lacrosse fields, a nature walking path and new restrooms and concession stands.
At the main Iroquois Drive campus, plans include an improved track and field area, new tennis courts, expanded bus garage and parking lots, expanded district office with a Seneca Nation tutoring space and some aesthetic improvements to the existing buildings.
At Prospect Elementary School, a new connecting wing to the middle and east wings would be built with four additional classrooms and a new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) space.
The $34.7 million project would be paid for with about $25 million in reserves the district has on hand, about $3 million from federal and state aid and about $6.7 million in bonding, which results in no additional tax impact for residents of the district.
After his presentation, Breidenstein answered several questions from those present concerning the potential project, particularly concerning Vets Park.
One person wondered how many students at the schools play the sports this project would affect. Breidenstein said although not every student plays a sport, every student in the high school is involved in some class, activity or co-curricular group that would use these facilities.
“They use the fields for archery team, which is not a sport but a co-curricular, our robotics team uses the field, lacrosse, soccer, everything,” he said. “We’re averaging about 25 to 30 students per sport for varsity and JV. Modified can vary depending on the sport.”
Another question concerned if there would be a fee for groups outside of the school using the park. Breidenstein said there would be no cost to the community unless there was an additional cost to the district for the event.
One community member shared a concern for taking a number of trees down to expand the athletic field area and installing the 5-foot-wide walking trail east of the fields. Breidenstein said more than a dozen fully developed trees would have to be removed to move the football field, but they intend to plant new trees elsewhere in the park.
“We’ll cut a path out through the trees, but the intent of that property is to make sure that it can be well maintained in a park-like setting,” he said. “We would get in there and clean it up, and that any trees that would be removed from the trail here or moving the trail back would be replaced.”
Another question regarded parking for the games. The plans for the project have the new parking lots about 100 feet from both the multi-use field and the baseball field, which Breidenstein said the student athletes were adamant about.
“They said they don’t want vehicles parked around the field. They want people in the stands,” he said. “They don’t want people sitting in their cars, listening to the radio and not paying attention. They want the bleechers packed.”
Breidenstein said the district would also have golf cart shuttles to transport people who park at the high school to and from the field if the lots and the park are filled.
A community member also expressed concern about the synthetic fields and wondered if there were any dangerous chemicals that would be exposed to people. Breidenstein said the methods by which artificials fields are made today are much safer and healthier than ones from 20 years ago. He said the minimal contact athletes and kids would have with the fields are well within the state’s safety regulations.
Several people also wondered about the community use of the park, with one asking if the gates would be open for everyone.
“It’s our belief that the park should be open all day seven days a week because people will be using it, whether it’s Little League or community events or football or baseball,” Breidenstein said. “The park will be open for the nature trail, parking and playgrounds.”
(Contact managing editor Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com)
