Schools launch "Field of Dreams" project

Athletic boosters hope this land will one day house ball fields.

The Sisters School District is launching an effort to finish the athletic facilities planned for the new Sisters High School.

Community members and athletic boosters for baseball, softball, track, tennis, football and soccer are invited to attend an informational meeting on May 1, at 5:30 p.m. in the high school Lecture Drama room.

"Some of the most memorable moments in a community's history are when it gets the opportunity to rally around a cause," said Sisters High School Principal Boyd Keyser.

The "Field of Dreams" project is coming in the wake of a long struggle over the scope of the new high school. The school board has set a $21 million budget for the project and will use $1 million in earned bond interest to pay down bonded indebtedness.

According to Keyser, to get the most "mortar and bricks" for their dollar, the board and the architectural team have focused their expenditures on the building.

Much of the development of outside areas is unfunded. The most prominent of these unfunded components are the parking areas and the outside athletic facilities.

According to Keyser, the facilities that will need to be completed and their approximate costs are:

• Varsity and JV baseball fields (dugouts, backstop, fencing, scoreboard, bleachers, storage shed) -- $150,000.

• Varsity and JV softball fields (dugouts, fencing, scoreboard, bleachers, storage shed) -- $100,000.

• Football field (bleachers, press box, lights, scoreboard, fencing, ticket booth, storage shed) -- $200,000.

• Concession stand and restrooms (placed in the middle of the athletic complex) -- $125,000.

• Soccer (scoreboards, bleachers, storage shed) -- $60,000.

• Track (fencing, restrooms, concessions, field improvements) -- $140,000.

• Tennis courts (four courts, fencing, nets, standards, benches, lights) -- $125,000.

Last week, the school board accepted a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) from contractor Kirby Nagelhout that puts the high school project just under the $21 million budget.