Othello School Board to discuss levy, football field

OTHELLO — Othello School Board members will hold a workshop at 7 p.m. Nov. 9 to review the options for a maintenance and operations levy. Board members will also discuss options for the Othello High School football field and an ongoing project to upgrade the OHS tennis courts, among other possible construction projects.

The football field is in poor shape, so poor that OHS Homecoming activities scheduled for the field last week had to be switched to other locations. “We didn’t even know if the (Homecoming) game was going to be on the field until two days before, the day before,” said Karen Quigley, one of two OHS student representatives to the board.

“We really need to take some steps to correct it,” said board member Stewart Hilmes. Board member Rob Simmons said the board already had decided on maintenance for the field, scheduled for spring. Assistant superintendent Gina Bullis said district officials met recently with the design team.

Bullis said the district had a couple of options, and that board members would get two budgets and two timelines, one for replanting the existing grass field, the other for replacing it with artificial turf.

Simmons said he attended a game in Connell, which has a grass field, and was “pretty impressed” with its condition. It’s possible, he said, to have a grass field in this region. Bullis said part of the problem in Othello might be the ground under the field, which may have been developed in the past. That might affect drainage on the existing field, she said.

Board member Tony Ashton asked about the tennis courts, a project board members discussed over the summer and advertised for bids. Ultimately the board decided to rebid, which meant the project was delayed until spring 2017.

The district’s existing maintenance and operations levy expires in 2017, and Simmons asked how long board members had to make a decision on a replacement. February 2017 would be the earliest date to submit the levy request to voters. Bullis said the board would have to approve the levy resolution by early December, with the Dec. 12 board meeting being the target date, to qualify for the February ballot.

In other business, Ashton asked board members about looking into the possibility of live broadcasts of board meetings.

Ashton said he didn’t even know if it could be done, and if it could, how much it would cost. But if it could be done it might be a way to increase community participation at board meetings, he added.