Ohio County Schools Going To Bat for Baseball Turf | News, Sports, Jobs

Photo by Joselyn King – Ohio County Schools Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones shares a moment with board of education members at the start of Monday’s board meeting.

WHEELING – A project to place artificial turf on the Wheeling Park High School baseball field could happen this summer, and now there is talk about installing new lighting there in the future.

A representative from the Astroturf company met with school district officials Monday to present their final plans and design for the turf, Ohio County Schools Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones told board of education members at their meeting Monday night.

The cost for the turf alone is expected to be $1.2 million.

“They’ll start as soon as this baseball season is completed — hopefully, if it is dry enough and it is not a wet summer,” Jones said. “By the end of the summer, it should be done.”

He told board members the present plan is for installers to leave room for a future lighting project at the field. They would place conduit now to house electrical lines for a lighting system similar to that placed last year on the new athletic field.

The price for new lighting on the baseball field is expected to be about the same cost as that installed at the athletic field — or about $380,000, according to Jones.

“We talked to them about the possibility of adding structure for lights in the event we ever wanted to add lights at some point,” he said. “I don’t recommend that we add them right now because of the cost.”

But the school district learned during construction of the athletic field electrical lines need to be thought out and provided for prior to the installation of turf so trucks don’t have to come along later and drive on the turf, Jones explained.

Conduit for lights will be run around the field as part of the turf installation, and space for trucks to drive on also is part of the design, he added.

“This plan is minus lights,” Jones continued. “If you want to talk lights, we can.

“The lights at the multipurpose field are great, so once you see them on you think that would be nice. But we have not brought that up at this point.”

Board President David Croft said a copy of the design Jones presented to the board Monday night should be sent to the Wheeling Park Commission for its input. The new athletic field next to the baseball field sits on land owned by the commission, and the Wheeling Park Commission and Ohio County School recently signed a long-term lease agreement for the property.

Representatives from Astroturf are expected to return to Wheeling for the board’s next meeting at 6 p.m on April 11 to answer questions. The board would need to vote then to expend the money for the project, or at their following regular meeting on April 25, if the project is to take place over the summer, Jones explained.

In other matters, board members approved the calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. The calendar has students starting on Aug. 23, spring break happening April 3-10, 2023, and the school year concluding May 31, 2023.

WPHS graduation would take place on May 22, 2023.

The board also tentatively accepted the administration’s recommendation that the school district’s levy rates remain at 95.5% of the taxation rate allowed under state law.

Ohio County’s assessed cumulative property value remains flat this year at just over $2.5 billion, business manager Steven Bieniek reported. Leaving the rate at 95.5% would result in a slight financial loss to the district of $36,535, he said.

Ohio County School’s budget for next year is expected to be $71,703,950,

The board will convene for a levy order meeting at 8 a.m. on April 19 to officially approve the rate.