ST. MARYS — Discussion became heated with St. Marys school board members Wednesday over a discussion to move forward with a project to build a stadium and sports complex on the school’s campus.
The project would include relocating the high school football field from the current location at the site of the former high and middle school.
The school board entered an agreement with Clover Development Strategies to do a feasibility study to build the new stadium. The board was set to accept when board member Bob Valentine brought up several concerns about the study and Clover itself. Valentine reiterated those concerns at the board meeting.
“I believe there are a number of things we should look at before moving forward with this agenda,” Valentine said. “It appears to me that there are several board members as well as administration that wish to press this through. We haven’t given this the proper diligence.”
Valentine has alleged that the company responsible for study has presented itself under several different names to the school board. He said the business is not listed as an incorporated business, as required by Florida law, and was not registered as a foreign business in Ohio to do business in this state.
Valentine said he also had a problem with the misrepresentation of the study, saying it did not state anywhere that anything was feasible. He said the study was more like a pre-fundraising survey. Clover has also been retained by the board to campaign to raise capital from the private sector for the complex, which will cost about $4.5 million.
He said the board had to overlook too many factors at this point that needed to be considered to move ahead with the plan.
School board member Brian Little contradicted Valentine’s statements. Little said he had spoken with an attorney, and he understood that Clover Apelian, who has signed documents as president of CDS, had not broken any laws.
“This simply is a vote for us to make a decision to discuss the possibilities of raising funds to move the stadium out here,” he said.
Little said the Apelian did what she was asked to do by the board. He said the vote was not a move by the board to “break ground.”
“It is not a done deal,” Little said.
After the discussion, the board ultimately approved an agreement with CDS to campaign to raise the capital from the field, passing by a 3-2 vote. Board member Travis Kuenning also voted no.
“I think we are making a mistake moving forward on this,” Kuenning said, “solely on the grounds that we are not including the public or their opinions. We have a handpicked committee of 48 people who have decided we should come out here. Without the public’s opinions, I don’t see how we can get levies passed. We have seen what has happened in the past.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
