Franklin Regional officials will move ahead to borrow about $10 million in order to renovate their athletic fields, as well as create a multi-purpose field on the school district’s main campus in Murrysville.

The school board voted unanimously Monday night to fund the project through a bond issue. It will include renovations and new construction at the district’s softball field, tennis courts, Haymaker Park and the creation of a multi-purpose field between the tennis courts and Panther Stadium.

Facilities Director Brian Johnson said he and Athletic Director Zach Kessler have been working to gather information and concepts for the project for more than a year.

“One of the reasons you guys brought me here is I’m familiar with projects like this,” Johnson said, citing his work renovating athletic facilities in the Woodland Hills School District. “We spend probably 40 to 60 hours per week working on our current fields, and we’re spending anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 annually just to keep the fields up.

“This will allow me to pull guys who normally would be doing field maintenance to do other things that will keep our campus beautiful the way we want.”

Kessler, who has been FR’s athletic director since 2007, said the state of the district’s athletics facilities surprised him.

“I was a little shocked to see a team that had just won a state championship using, frankly, average facilities,” he said. “We’re a 5A school, and most of our facilities sit at a 2A or 3A level, and that’s being kind. I don’t say it to talk bad about this district — but our facilities are pretty inadequate.”

Kessler said district tennis courts are failing, players and match attendees have only portable toilets, and its softball and baseball teams are regularly at the mercy of the weather, not just on game-day but in the days prior, when wet weather and outdated drainage has rendered the fields unplayable.

“If it weren’t for our maintenance staff, particularly our groundskeeper, Harold Wallace, we’d probably play even less,” Kessler said. “We’ve played a couple of ‘home’ games on the road in recent years (because of the field conditions). Our baseball coach estimated that they were able to practice only 10 times last season at Haymaker Park.”

The district recently assumed ownership and maintenance of Haymaker Park, and the renovation plan proposes a new field along with new dugouts, a two-story building housing a concession stand, restrooms and a press box, along with a new scoreboard.

“We have a lot of needs in our athletic department and across the district, but the fields are the immediate need,” Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said. “When I look at the condition of our fields, there’s concern not just for the health and safety of our athletes, but also to look at it from a coaching, community and spectator perspective.”

Piraino also said the district will look into revenue generators like naming rights, sponsorships, rentals and other opportunities.

“None of those will pay for the whole thing, but together they do help offset some of the costs,” Piraino said.

Kessler said the biggest impact of the project will be the multi-purpose field, to be situated between the tennis courts and Panther Stadium. The initial design was redone to create enough space for a full-sized football field.

“The phys-ed department is thrilled about that field,” he said. “Their use will free up gym space, and the field is an athletic director’s dream.

“You could potentially have multiple practices there at the same time. We’ve had lacrosse families whose players don’t get home until after 10 o’clock at night. Our students could all actually practice after school, as intended.”

Paying for the upgrades

The project would be financed over roughly 30 years.

The district’s current annual debt payments — primarily for borrowing on its elementary campus project — are just under $3.2 million.

Borrowing for the athletic fields project would between $595,000 and $688,000 each year through 2045. That figure drops to about $260,000 each year through 2050.

At that point, the district will have paid off the elementary campus” debt, and the final few years of debt service on the athletics project are roughly $1.2 million annually.

Finance Director Jon Perry said the new borrowing would likely cost the average district taxpayer an additional $70 per year. Johnson said rough timeline would see the renovations complete by December 2026.

“My daughter was a student-athlete, and I can add my endorsement that there aren’t enough fields, the locker rooms are terrible, we need more restrooms,” said district resident Kristy Trautmann. “Wrapping my head around whether $10 million is a reasonable cost for something is a really hard thing to do. But I think it’s a really important investment for our district.”

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