Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - State Assemblyman Bill Conrad was in the City of Tonawanda on Tuesday, joined by officials and students from the Tonawanda City School District to celebrate the announcement of $500,000 in state funding for upgrades for facilities at the district’s middle/high school.
The grant first covered the resurfacing of six outdoor hard-surface tennis courts and two pickleball courts on the Fletcher Street campus. The work refurbished the aging courts and brought them back to optimal condition, but it allowed for re-striping of one of them, for use in the smaller-scale sport of pickleball.
The new courts will be open at set times for public use, and they will also facilitate pickleball instruction in students’ physical education classes.
Secondly, the funding is supporting ongoing renovations of the school auditorium, which is used by students of every grade level, as well as by community groups. The auditorium was in dire need of repairs and upgrades, as its sound and lighting systems had outlived their usefulness. The district is modernizing both to include higher-tech features and more energy efficient equipment.
"Things get old, and they're expensive. And with this climate that we're in right now and the budgets, the way school budgets are, this was a major concern for the superintendent as well as the director of athletics. And on top of this, the auditorium, which a lot of the performances and things [take place there], equipment was aged and had gone past its life cycle. So we were able to combine those two projects and apply for grants from the state, and bring those dollars here to make sure that we could build the new auditorium and equipment that's needed, and also resurface these tennis courts," said Conrad on Tuesday.
"This grant and investment in our school district allows us to deliver on some scope of work in the auditorium and these new pickleball courts that, otherwise, wouldn't have been able to be done without an increase to our taxpayers. So our effort in this district to continue to stay within the tax cap and deliver capital projects that are tax neutral becomes more-and-more challenging," added Tonawanda City Schools Superintendent Tim Oldenburg. "Assemblyman Conrad understands that and was able to deliver for us not just something that can be used for our students and our staff, but two areas that are public and community front-facing."
The public will have access to restored sports courts and a modernized auditorium
The public will have access to restored sports courts and a modernized auditorium
