Stadium lights may shine thanks to anonymous donor

An anonymous donor who gave $10,000 to the campaign to raise money to replace the lights at Pottstown High School’s Grigg Memorial Field has now offered to loan the effort up to $86,000 to ensure the lights get erected this summer in time for the fall football season.

The news was delivered last week by school board member Polly Weand, who has headed up the long and difficult fundraising effort.

She said the same anonymous donor who provided $10,000 on Thanksgiving Day, has made this new offer because “he is determined these lights are going to get put up.”

The latest estimate for the job, also delivered last week to the board’s facilities committee, is $302,674, and the fundraising effort is about $86,000 short of what it needs to pay for the job.

The Iowa-based company that offered the estimate is willing to finance the remainder for a fiveor seven-year period, at an interest rate between 3.95 percent and 4.45 percent.

But Weand said she would rather avoid interest payments and asked School Board Solicitor Stephen Kalis about the legality of a loan from the donor.

In short, Kalis said if the loan agreement is between the donor and the fundraising campaign, the school district need not be involved at all.

But if the district will be expected to make up any shortfalls in payments should the fundraising effort be unable to raise the

“He is determined these lights are going to get put up.” Polly Weand, Pottstown School Board member

remaining $86,000, Kalis he would need more information.

Weand reiterated that she does not want to see any tax money used for the effort, a position taken by the school board three years ago when the existing poles were cut and the lights removed.

Athletic field repairs

In other athletic facility related matters, the facilities committee was informed that the bid for repairing the athletic fields along North Franklin Street, used for soccer and field hockey, came in less than expected.

The district was expecting a bill around $325,000, but the estimated cost is $276,762. The money to pay for the project will come from the proceeds of a recent bond re-financing, said Business Manager Linda Adams, adding no cost to the budget.

This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.

DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO Because the wooden poles on which they were set had been declared to be unsafe, the lights and top portion of the poles were removed in May of 2014. Since then, a fundraising campaign has struggled to raise the $300,000 needed to replace them.