Bishop Fenwick High School, in Middletown along the eastern border of the Butler County school system, is helping by allowing Middletown’s track and field teams to practice at their track.
“We hoped to have the new track ready for the 2019 track season, but the weather hasn’t worked in our favor,” said Elizabeth Beadle, spokesperson for the city schools.
“Luckily, we have good partners in Fenwick High School who give our athletes practice time on their track,” said Beadle.
The track and field stadium, which gives the city schools an alternative to Barnitz Stadium for middle school, high school sports teams as well as students in physical education classes, is part of a $96 million construction project on the high school campus.
The historic building project, which included constructing a new Middletown Middle School and an expanded and renovated high school, was the largest school project in the Butler County city’s history and it’s not done.
District officials are considering using a remaining $10 million from the $96 million project to expand school space at an undetermined number of existing schools with details still being debated by officials and the community.
Tom Weiser, business manager for Middletown Schools, said the problems with the new track started in November.
“The new track stadium is complete except for the rubber top coat that still needs to be applied to the black top track surface,” said Weiser.
“We planned on surfacing the track at the beginning of November, however, during construction the contractors discovered they needed to remove several tons of dirt and replace it with limestone and then compact it,” he said.
“This caused us a two-week delay and pushed us into late November and colder weather. In order to lay down the rubber top coat, we now need a period of 10 days above 50 degrees,” which isn’t in the forecast this week with temperatures forecast as 20 to 30 degrees colder.
“While there will be no additional cost incurred during the delay of the completion of the track, it has only caused inconvenience for our track athletes. The usage of the turf, however, is fine for play and practice,” said Weiser.
District officials are now projecting using the new track in early May.
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