Board votes to build East Carbon ball field

By Sun Advocate

The Carbon County School Board met in it’s regular meeting last Wednesday and one of the main topics of discussion was the construction of a new baseball field for the East Carbon high school.
“It seems if we are going to put together a new field for the high school. The most cost effective way to do it would be to build it on the land that East Carbon is offering us,” stated Doug Hintze, assistant superintendent. “That means we would be responsible for much of the cost of building the field, but East Carbon City will take care of the maintenance over it’s years of use.”
District officials had been looking at building a field on property the school district owns on the East Carbon High campus, but the cost of building it would be much more than on the East Carbon property and of course the district would also have the cost of maintaining it over the years.
“One of the problems with that piece of property is it has a rise of 11 feet,” explained Hintze.”We looked into the cost of leveling it and, according to the contractors we talked to, they could guarantee a price and they thought that would be more than we will be spending if we build an entirely new field on the East Carbon City site.”
Hintze also brought up the fact that under the soil that would have to be moved, the underlaying layers may well be pure rock.
The board discussed the situation and board member Walt Borla was concerned about the fact that the team has played on the existing Sunnyside Field for so long.
“That’s a good field,” he stated. “I played there in the Coal League when I was a kid.”
But the majority of the board decided a new field was in order for the high school team, and thought the idea of having a field that not only cost less to build, but had little maintenance cost to the district was a good idea.
“It is important that if we are going to have a field for them to play on next year that we get started putting the facility together now so that it can be hydroseeded before the winter,” cautioned Hintze. “That way the grass will be established for next season.”
The board voted to support building a new field at a cost between $40,000 to $60,000.
Acting in other business at the meeting, the board members:
•Voted to proceed on a land transfer of some property the district owns to provide a right of way to Leon Davis who is building a home on a piece of property that has no exit to a Wellington city street.
The granting of the property will depend upon some conditions including the maintenance of a school district easement through the property, that an official survey is done and that an access is maintained to the back part of the property so the school district has access to it.
•Superintendent David Armstrong presented an expanded early college high school initiative program to the board.
“In the past we have had students do this, but most were in the situation where they could pay for the college classes,” he told the board. “We have now found a grant that will allow low income students to do it as well.”
The school district presently will pay for one three hour class for any student who wishes to have concurrent enrollment at the College of Eastern Utah, but past that, the student has to pay the cost for colleges courses with some other means.
“Under this new program, approximately 50 percent of the students at the high school will qualify,” Armstrong told the board. “This grant requires that I and someone from the college attend a workshop in New York to set up the program and that is what I am asking permission to do.”
The principal funding of this program is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But other foundations are participating as well including the Carnegie, Kellogg, and Ford Foundations.
The board approved the travel for Armstrong to attend the workshop.
•The board granted permission to Helper City to place an antenna on the roof of Helper Junior High for wireless communication operations for the Helper Police Department. The new system will give police officers in the department internet access on their laptop computers so that they can access information they may need more readily.
•The board reviewed a possible new policy on school community councils. The district presently has no policy and the one they are reviewing was sent to Carbon by the Utah School Boards Association. The new policy would outline how these councils are staffed and it would also give them more say in school affairs than the present system does.
The board approved a first reading of the new possible policy.
•It was noted by the board that a meeting of the Governor’s Employers Education Coalition that was slated for the Student Center at CEU on Sept. 26 has been cancelled. More meetings will be planned by the coalition at a later time.