The Seneca Softball/Little League Field was improved by the addition of 123 tons of gravel screenings, which greatly improved the playing surface of the infield, the Seneca School Board learned at last month’s meeting. That was Phase One.
At the October board meeting, the field improvement organizer Billy Oppriecht explained Phase Two of the project. It involves replacing and improving the net in the backstop behind home plate. The improvement will be 20-foot tall fence backstop that will run from dugout to dugout and cost around $20,000. It will replace the old net.
The funding for the new backstop has come from a number of sources, according to Oppriecht.
The Seneca Little League donated $5,000, the Community Club donated $5,000, The Town of Seneca donated $2,500 and the George Family Foundation generously donated $10,000.
Oppriecht told the school board that he felt the contributions were enough to get the project done this fall with a little bit left over.
Seneca Town Chairman Tom Kearns has told Oppriecht to move forward with the project. The township is the owner of the property where the diamond is located.
A more detailed exact quote will be submitted and Oppriecht believes it will come in really close to the original bid and does not think it will exceed the $22,500 currently available.
Phase Three of the project will be the construction of new dugouts next fall for about $11,000. Little League has pledged $5,000 toward the project. Expanding the proposed 19-foot dugouts to 24-feet could add to the cost, but is under consideration.
It was proposed that the softball team could do some fundraising for the dugout costs. After some discussion, board member Adam Green suggested the school district should at least match the township’s latest donation. A motion to that effect was made and passed, committing the district to donate $2,500 toward the project.
In other business, the Seneca School Board
• discussed the district’s ‘suicide-tragedy’ policy with superintendent Alex Osterkamp, who has taken some training in the matter
• discussed the need to renew contracts with CompuNet for securing the district’s computer system from malware attacks and Osterkamp said he would check with other district’s using the same service about the coverage they use
• approved allowing the school cafeteria to do some catering for private entities, as long as it involves educational activities and in no way compromises the cafeteria’s main function of providing school lunches
• approved hiring Terminix exterminators to control mice in the building as needed for $130 per call
• approved the applications of 12 students for Start College Now applications, while rejecting three requests for a college Intro Psychology course because the students had not taken the course offered by the district; and rejected one course of another student, who was exceeding the 18 credit limit per year for the program by three credits
• learned that a poll of parents, as to changing graduation dates from Friday to Saturday next year, was rather inconclusive– six favored Friday; five favored Saturday; two favored going a week earlier and there was a lot of no preference
• bestowed the Seneca Area School District Monthly Recognition Award on Jenny Fisher for her work on homecoming; Ashley Roberts for her Facebook posting; and the lunchroom staff for presenting an around the world lunch menu.
