BRATTLEBORO-Before the Windham Southeast School District school board approved a $67.7 million budget for the next fiscal year to send to voters at the Tuesday, March 18 annual meeting, much of the discussion centered around the need for improvements to the Tenney Field grandstand at Brattleboro Union High School.
With a commitment already for $12 million in capital projects over the next few years, said Business Manager Frank Rucker, Tenney Field improvements are budgeted for $150,000 annually for the next three years.
Tenney Field has been home to 10 state champion baseball teams and seven state American Legion baseball titles for Brattleboro Post 5.
It was constructed from 1939 to 1940 with labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and paid for by the Brattleboro High School Alumni Association and private donations.
It was originally named Stolte Memorial Field, after Diedrich "Dede" Stolte, a longtime coach and physical education instructor at Brattleboro High School before his death in 1926.
The wooden grandstand was destroyed in a 1946 fire and replaced the next year with the present steel and concrete grandstand. The baseball field was dedicated to the late Carl A. Tenney, who coached the BUHS varsity baseball team from 1971 to 1996.
The grandstand is one of four similar, large-scale structures in the state and the only one in southern Vermont. In 2018, the Tenney Field grandstand was added to the Vermont Register of Historic Places.
Richard "Dick" DeGray of Brattleboro requested the board cut the expense and look for grant money to restore the historic bleachers, removing it from the budget for a year. He said spending the money now "is not a good expenditure."
Martha Noyes, of Brattleboro, and Jody Normandeau, of Dummerston, supported DeGray's suggestion.
In 2017, a group of citizens came together to raise the money to restore the bandstand, forming Team Tenney, a nonprofit organization.
But the financial burden of the repairs are now "falling on the community," Normandeau said. "Before it's over it'll [cost] a half million or more."
Ricky Aither, director of facilities for Brattleboro Union High School and Windham Regional Career Center, said the grandstand originally closed owing to its lack of compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the presence of lead paint, and other issues.
Though not in use, the grandstand still needs to be maintained "because it's just sitting there," he said.
He envisions it filling a need for outdoor learning space, Aither said.
"There's a roof over it, it would be shaded, it could be used during the school day," he said. The bandstand could also be used during athletics and during band concerts.
"It just opens doors for many opportunities out there," he said, adding that a semi-professional baseball team is potentially interested in using the field.
He said tearing down the grandstand would cost at least more than half a million dollars - "guaranteed" - and that in addition, another structure would have to be erected because there are electrical panels and three-phased power beneath the current structure.
"If we tear it down, those numbers that you see in the budget go way up. Way up. So what do we think, do we want it to sit out there and continue to deteriorate and be a major eyesore to our campus, or shall we fix it up? It's a historic grandstand. It's 80 years old. It's in pretty good shape."
Aither said there is an "open contract" to deal with the lead paint this spring at a cost of $78,000.
"That's going to allow us to move forward," he said, adding that Team Tenney is working on volunteers and donations.
"My goal is to just chip away," he said, adding that construction documents are already in-hand and some businesses will "throw money at it," while others are poised to offer lumber and other donations.
Rucker said grant funding has been pursued for the Tenney Field project, but the requirements of complying with the ADA and with lead paint abatement requirements have caused the project cost to rise.
"When you have grant funding, usually there's a lot of criteria you have to meet," he said. "We can't be pursuing grant funding when there's no commitment to a project."
Representative Ruby McAdoo asked the vision for "positive use" of the structure on campus, saying she'd like to "definitely hear from the administration that that vision of having classroom space is an important kind of underpinning of what we're thinking."
She said that would influence her decision on whether to "keep this investment."
Principal Hannah Parker said there are "zero spaces outside that you can go, because there's nothing covered," and "you're sitting in the glaring sun." She said the interior classroom temperature can rise to 90F.
Asked about the time frame for a fully functional outdoor classroom space/restored grandstand, Aither said it's a three-year project.
But, he said, "we could very well have this open and useable by the fall," depending on fundraising and material donations.
"We know what we need to do, and I feel pretty strong that it's very reasonable," Aither said.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.