Friday, October 11, 2024

Donors may fund stadium upgrade

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Athletic director optimistic about negotiations

By Scott Bellile


Hortonville High School could secure the funding needed to renovate Akin Field this month.

That’s if all goes as planned with a pair of prospective donors, HHS Athletic Director Andy Kolosso told the Public Relations and Long Range Planning Committee Monday, Sept. 12.

Kolosso said he’s been in talks with the individuals since May. One of the donors presented him an offer while the other is nearing that point.

“I couldn’t be happier than where we sit right now,” Kolosso said. “I think Todd [Timm, HHS principal] would agree with me with that. We’re sitting at a very good place. It’s just a matter of finalizing the deal.”

Kolosso kept details under wraps because negotiations continue, but he said the donations could help the school beyond the athletic field.

“I don’t want to give the particulars of what they presented right now to us,” Kolosso said. “The donor I spoke to on Thursday presented some things that are very student-friendly here for us that are going to take place as far as classes. I couldn’t believe what they were presenting for our kids in the school district.”

Committee member Dana Ramshak asked how the ideas go beyond the proposed stadium plan.

“I’m talking about here in the school,” Kolosso said. “Offering some mentoring type of things in classes and things like this to go through, that other schools have in the area that we don’t have at this point.”

“We have a limited academic and career path with health science,” Timm continued. “We have a pathway with the math, biz, and our science curriculum, but there’s some Capstone things that could be added to that as far as mentoring and observations and medical facilities that other schools in that pathway around us have to offer to kids that at this point we don’t.”

In the planning stages since 2014, the Akin Field project picked up steam a year ago with a goal of finishing phase one before the start of the 2016 football season. In February the project got pushed back to summer 2017.

The stadium project plans include nearly doubling the seating to 3,000 seats, replacing the lighting, installing artificial turf and redoing the concession stand. The project could cost more than $4 million based on past estimates, and no tax dollars would be used.

Hortonville stadium