On Monday, the Sag Harbor Board of Education approved a $7 million dollar bond for general facilities repairs and maintenance. In previous meetings, the board toyed with the idea of constructing a new storage building, laying down a turf field at Pierson and installing solar panels and a wind turbine. Though these suggestions sparked several debates at past meetings, the board decided to strike them from the bond.
Several parents who are tuned into the local sports scene advocated for the turf field. The new athletics director and supervisor of fields and grounds, Montgomery Granger, first recommended exploring installing a synthetic field when he took over the position this summer.
After weighing the merits of turf compared to the cost, the board decided to hold off until the plan has been fully vetted with the school’s Long-range Planning Committee.
According to school superintendent Dr. John Gratto, the committee plans to not only consider the project but invite several neighbors of Pierson who will be “most affected” by the installation of a turf field.
Additionally, the board decided to postpone construction of a storage building. Although members of the board argued there is a dire need for extra storage space on campus, Dr. Gratto said they didn’t feel comfortable sinking nearly $1 million into a two-story building without fully analyzing the project.
“We want to do some house cleaning and see if we are using our storage rooms wisely before we ask the community to spend more money,” reported Dr. Gratto during a later interview.
Several items from an energy performance contract will be folded into the overall bond. The contract, however, will no longer include a photovoltaic, or solar, system and a wind turbine. Both systems were extremely expensive. The photovoltaics cost around $129,500 and the wind turbine was priced at about $33,700. The board wasn’t sure how much they would be reimbursed in the form of rebates, added Dr. Gratto. The payback period for both systems, 52 years for the photovoltaic and 10 years for the wind turbine, didn’t justify the initial expense, said Dr. Gratto.
The bond, costing $6,724,087, will include around $4 million for repair projects like the plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems, nearly $440,000 for maintenance items, roughly $1 million for the parking project to create additional parking spots in the district and about $1 million on energy performance items like weather stripping and insulating doors. As the district is retiring a $3 million bond this year, the bond will cost the owner of a house assessed at $1 million around $63 a year over a 15-year period. The vote on the bond is scheduled for December 8.
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