Lebanon High School has allocated a portion of $5 million to replace the bleachers and turf at the school's James VeDeGrift stadium.
At a meeting Wednesday, the school board approved the use of an installment or lease-purchase structure to secure the funds.
The project will also include repaving parking lots at Bowman Primary School and Transportation Office, as well as portions of the parking lots at the high school. The high school will also get a new roof as part of the project.
According to the Journal-News, superintendent Isaac Seevers said the remaining portion of the roof that needs to be replaced will cost about $1.45 million, while paving will cost about $878,700. Meanwhile the youth football field at the high school will have field turf installed for use by the soccer and lacrosse teams. Seevers said the district has already had pledged or received $490,000 in donations from the local youth soccer association and the Lebanon soccer boosters.
New bleacher for the football stadium will cost about $1.6 million. That project will be done in phases, with the first phase involving the replacement of the home bleachers, which seat about 2,250 people.
"We need to replace the old bleachers and address these issues before we have problems," Seevers said.
The second phase of the project will involve replaced visitors' bleacher, as well as concessions and restrooms.
The long-term plan for the stadium is to expand the bleachers to accommodate 3,250 fans on the home side and 750 on the visitors side in addition to the new press box, restrooms, concession stands and other amenities. Fundraising for those projects will begin in the near future.
