Greenport to vote on $1.97M track and facilities upgrade
Greenport voters will decide Tuesday on a $1.97 million upgrade to the district’s aging athletic facilities — a project school officials say would be paid entirely from a capital reserve fund and would not raise property taxes.
The proposal would reconstruct and resurface the school’s cinder track and add new bleachers with accessible seating, along with a press box, comfort station and concession area. Improvements would also be made to locker room ceilings.
Greenport Superintendent Beth Doyle — who has lobbied for the project at school board, village and civic meetings — previously told The Suffolk Times the district’s existing facilities no longer meet current safety, accessibility or program needs.
“We are saying this is definitely a needs-based project, not a wish list project,” Ms. Doyle told the Southold Town Board at a work session meeting on Tuesday, March 10. “Seeing our facilities, they’re aging.”
The proposed replacement of a 20,000-gallon underground fuel tank on school grounds and a half-court basketball court were labelled “alternate projects” up for consideration in the bond vote, Ms. Doyle said. Those projects would only reach fruition if bids for those projects came in “under budget,” she explained.
Ms. Doyle said the district can maintain its facilities while strengthening its financial outlook, calling the proposal “the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
She acknowledged residents may find it confusing to hear warnings about a difficult budget year while the district is also asking voters to approve a capital project.
“There’s a little bit of probably cognitive dissonance here,” she said at a Village of Greenport meeting on Feb. 26. “‘You’re asking us to spend money on a capital project, and you’re also telling us that we’re going to have a tough budget year.’”
Ms. Doyle said about $1 million would remain in the capital reserve fund after the work is completed. The reserve is restricted for capital improvements and cannot be used for operating expenses such as salaries or benefits.
The project also calls for replacing locker room ceilings in the students’ facilities, constructing a new restroom building and replacing a wood storage barn with a 30-by-30-foot metal building.
The track would remain non-regulation size, meaning the school would not be able to host meets there. Making it regulation size would require relocating field lighting and a well pump on the site.
“There would be some environmental impact, is what the architect was telling us, because we’d be moving into the wetlands,” Ms. Doyle said at the Greenport Civic Association’s meeting on March 3. “And then the price tag was $5 million instead of $2 million, which is beyond what we have in our capital reserve.”
Voting will take place Tuesday from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Greenport Elementary School gym.
The district’s first budget presentation is slated for March 17.
