Dr. Martin Ringstaff, director of Cleveland City Schools.CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The athletic fields at Cleveland Middle School will be getting lights.
The middle school opened in 2000 with football, track and baseball fields unlighted as a cost-saving measure. It has been a 12-year campaign by the school's sports fans and coaches to get those lights.
Monday, the Cleveland Board of Education approved a deal that will finance the lights with the same company used by local government, MUSCO Finance LLC of Oskaloose, Iowa.
Beginning in 2013, the $400,000 project will be paid for at more than $146,000 a year for three years. Then the equipment becomes school system property, but MUSCO will maintain the system for 25 years.
"This will change the paradigm for sports at Cleveland Middle School," said board member Steve Morgan.
Paul Ramsey, energy education specialist for the school system, said the payments will begin just as the final $165,000 annual payment is made to Energy Education, the company under contract as adviser to starting the school system's energy conservation program.
Board member George Meacham asked why not have Cleveland Utilities install the lights.
But MUSCO's offer is cheaper than existing Cleveland Utilities programs, Ramsey said. And Cleveland Utilities does not do those kinds of projects now, he said.
The sports lighting was one of several facilities issues before the city school board.
The board postponed a discussion on buying a site at Hardwick Farm for a new elementary school. Director Martin Ringstaff said the family has made an offer, but it is not on paper yet.
"We are on the cusp of finalizing this," Ringstaff said.
But the delay gives time for all family members to agree, he said, and avoid hearsay.
On another issue, the board learned a new landowner next door to the STaR Center refuses to let school staff park for free on the property where they have parked for years. The center, on North Lee Highway, houses much of the system's support staff.
Ringstaff said the school system is talking with its own landlord, the Church of God of Prophecy, which rents the STaR Center to the school system.
Contact Randall Higgins at rhiggins@timesfreepress.com or 423-314-1029.