The nonprofit Husky Nation Foundation has $15,000 in hand and applied for $800,000 in grants to start the three-phase sports complex on Cardinal Schools campus.HNF…
The nonprofit Husky Nation Foundation has $15,000 in hand and applied for $800,000 in grants to start the three-phase sports complex on Cardinal Schools campus.
HNF Treasurer Mark Longrich updated Middlefield Village Council at its Dec. 4 meeting regarding fundraising for the project that will tie the village, the school district and the organization together for 20 years– if the village council and school board reach an agreement.
“We’re getting checks in every other day,” Longrich said, adding some donations have even come in from out of the school district.
Fundraising events such as a Chinese auction and a night at the races are being planned, he told council, showing them a conceptual drawing of the complex.
However, as of Tuesday, neither council nor the board signed a contract that would provide the HNF with the promise of money.
In the fall, Middlefield Village Council took a straw vote indicating members would be willing to dole out two payments of about $70,000 to Cardinal Schools to build a sports complex on Cardinal property.
The total is part of a deal proposed to fund the $1.5 million project being spearheaded by HNF.
For its payments to the school district, the village would have a contract for 20 years during which the village recreation program would use the facility.
The village has been paying the district $10,500 annually for use of the school’s facilities for its recreation programs, so the 20-year lease would save the village years of payments.
On Tuesday, Cardinal Schools Board of Education put an action item on Wednesday’s special meeting agenda to approve a contract with the village for 20 years to fund the village’s use of the district’s fields and recreational facilities in the amount of $139,478.
If the contract is approved, the village will pay the district half in January 2015 and half in January 2016, according to the agenda. Terms will be finalized by the superintendent and treasurer.
Discussion at the board office will include parking, disposition of the tennis courts (which belong to the village), and an area to be saved for possible high school expansion.
HNF has laid out the following expectations, if the village and district can reach an agreement, for the three-phase sports complex:
Phase 1 concession stand and a new entry to the facility with a Wall of Fame;
Phase 2 Artificial turf playing field, a track with new or refurbished stands and lights;
Phase 3 New seating, new baseball field and a new field house.
