School Board approves athletic facilities plan

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

The Cedar Grove-Belgium School Board last week gave the go-ahead to redo the high school track and install synthetic turf on its football and soccer field for about $2 million.

The plan is the result of a brainstorming session last month that addressed an estimated $3.3 million of athletic facility upgrades from Milwaukee-based Kapur consulting engineering firm. The projects included bleachers, lighting, a scoreboard, synthetic turf on the baseball field, a new softball field and new shot put, pole vault, long jump and triple jump areas,

From there, the board prioritized what it deemed as the most important improvements.

Board member Kurt Kraus last month said the district should be “doing the track tomorrow” but it has been holding off because of the possibility of adding synthetic turf to the football field.

“To me, the school should just pay for the track,” he said.

Board member Dan Bruhn agreed, saying the track is used by physical education classes and community members often walk on it for exercise.

Supt. Chad Brakke initially suggested the district pay for the track and contribute $500,000 for synthetic turf for football and soccer, leaving fundraising to handle the other $500,000. Since then, the design of the new middle school playground, part of the $21 million referendum that was approved in April, was unveiled. The playground sprawls into Calvary Field where the boys play soccer, so the board agreed to  fund the entire project with district money.

“We will still start a naming rights campaign to raise funds, but the project is not dependent on that,” Brakke said.

To help guide fundraising, the board took a look at a first draft of a naming rights policy from Neola, an independent policy service provider.

The sample policy was from Burlington, Brakke said.

The board could make changes to the policy and approve it on Wednesday, Jan. 11.