Harrison High School Turf Field Fundraising Hits $615K

The current fundraising total is a little less than half of what's needed for renovations at Wildcat Stadium.

A rendering of a possible new artificial turf multi-use field at William Henry Harrison High School. Image via Harrison Athletic Boosters.

(Harrison, Oh.) – Hundreds of thousands of dollars are still needed before a new multi-use turf field can be installed at Harrison High School. 

The Harrison Athletic Boosters launched a fundraising campaign in May that would see the new turf field and other renovations be completed tax free at Wildcat Stadium.

With a fundraising goal of $1.5 million, the Inspired by Excellence Wildcat Stadium Renovation campaign would see the installation of a new turf field as well as new visitor bleachers, visitor concessions and restrooms, a visitors press box, stadium scoreboard and fully-irrigated natural grass practice space.

At a May 28 community information meeting, it was announced that local businesses, athletic boosters and Southwest Local Schools staff have committed to $615,000 to the renovations. 

Fundraising organizers say the renovations would match new state-of-the-art schools. 

In November 2017, voters in the school district passed a bond issue and tax levy to fund three new elementary schools, a new middle school and renovations to the high school.

Not only were outdoor athletic facilities excluded from the bond issue and tax levy, the construction of the new schools will eliminate the current high school soccer field and current grass practice space.

If fundraising surpasses the $1.5 million goal, a turf practice field and additional parking could be added to the renovations. 

The renovation timeline calls for the grass practice fields to be installed by August 2019. The turf field and other Wildcat Stadium renovations are slated to be completed by June 2020 and collection of pledge commitments would begin by January 1, 2020.

The full PowerPoint presentation from the May 28 community informational meeting can be viewed at cdn.prepconnectweb.com.

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