Cortland Banks Gives $20K for Boardman Stadium
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Cortland Banks President and CEO James Gasior presented an oversized check for $20,000 to the Boardman Boosters Club Tuesday for the installation of artificial turf and seating at the new high school football stadium.
Construction on the stadium, a $3.7 million project, begins “within 10 days,” said Boosters President Bill Bonte.
“Facilities over a period of time become dated and you want to provide the best facilities to your young athletes and the students of the school,” Gasior said. “This is a big step for the school and the athletic boosters.”
While the stadium won't be ready for varsity football games this fall, Bonte said, it will be available for other events.
“It gets tagged as a football stadium, but it can be used for soccer, by baseball for infield practice, for the band, for P.E. [physical education] classes,” he said. “We can use it for freshman football, Little Spartans, middle school football. There will be a lot of things we can accomplish by putting in this artificial turf.”
Cortland Banks, which has three branches inr the Boardman vicinity, made other donations earlier to the project, Gasior said, noting that yesterday’s gift is its largest.
“Two of our more significant branches are here in the Boardman/North Lima area, so Boardman is part of our ability to grow as a community bank and we value our relationship with the school and community,” Gasior said. “We're proud to be a part of [the project].”
The new stadium will be on the campus of Boardman High School instead of next to Boardman Center Middle School. (The middle school was once the high school.) Making the switch from grass to turf will allow more events to be held in the new stadium without damage to the field.
“You don't have to worry about using it to the extent that you're going to wear it out during a season. If you have rain one day, even in the evening, you can come back and play on it. You don't have issues with wearing out the grass or [playing in] mud, so you can utilize it a lot more easily,” Bonte said.
Construction on the field and track will take place this summer and the stadium will be ready for limited use by Sept. 1, Bonte said. The stadium will be ready to host varsity football games in the fall of 2015.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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