Board of Education Accepts $10,000 Toward Friday Night Lights Proposal

will contract a firm to draw plans for stadium lights at with a $10,000 donation from the Beachwood High School Athletic Boosters.

The Board of Education voted 4-1 Monday night to accept the donation, amended from the Boosters offered the Board last month to put lights on the field.

The plans could be completed in about a month, Superintendent Rich Markwardt told the Board, and if the Board approves the plans, it would go to the city for approval.

The plans will also include estimates for the costs of installation and maintenance, which the Boosters have committed to raising and donating to the district.

Lights are still not a certainty: the Boosters would have to raise the money and the Board of Education and city will have to approve the project for it to go forward.

Markwardt said that state law prohibits the district from giving money back after it is donated, so the Boosters offered only the cost of this first piece of the project.

Board member David Ostro voted against the measure, and said that accepting it would create the expectation from supporters that the lights would definitely go on the field.

“I do not believe that creating this level of expectation or certainty now is fair or prudent to any parties,” Ostro added.

But Markwardt noted that, with at the high school, the timing of this project is not ideal and he would have liked to see it as part of a project to replace the football field with artificial turf.

The lights would allow Friday night football, but if turf were installed at the same time, the fields could be used for nighttime practice, too, he said.

Markwardt and Boosters President Herb Schoen estimate that the lights will cost up to $180,000 for installation. Schoen added that he believes that cost could include maintenance for several years.

Markwardt said that, if drawings were approved by the Board and the city without issues, and if the Boosters raise the money necessary, he believes it would be possible for lights to be installed in time for 2012 football.

“Based on the construction schedule I say two years,” said Robert Marks, a Booster member involved in the project, “and that’s OK, because it’s been 54 years in the making.”