May 15, 2024 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

Washington School Board has decided not to move forward with plans to renovate Colt League baseball field at Washington Park, opting instead to focus on other district improvements.

Monday’s decision eliminates the need to meet with Washington City Council regarding the project.

“We confirmed with the board that there is no interest in pursuing the Colt Field project,” said Superintendent George Lammay. “There is no value to meet regarding that process. We’re going to look at other options.”

Lammay said Tuesday that the district will focus on work needed on the 90-year old high school building, and related motions were approved at Monday’s school board meeting. The board awarded a high school masonry project to Mariani & Richards at a cost of $4,483,000 (base bid of $4,219,000 and alternate bid of $624,000) and window construction to AB Specialties for $2,062,000 (base bid of $1,975,000 and alternate bid of $87,600).

“We’ve had some physical problems at this building,” Lammay said of the high school. “We need to look at that.”

Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess and City Council recently sent a letter asking for the meeting to clear up what city officials describe as “misinformation” about the proposed field project.

“I was made aware the field is off the table for them, and that’s fine,” Burgess said Tuesday. “My big thing was making sure everyone in the public knew that the city did nothing wrong. This had to be a decision the school board made based off of what they were doing. That’s why I called the meeting because I wanted to be sure that all of our cards were on the table. If they’re moving on with thoughtfulness for what they have to do for the students, I’m cool with that.”

The school board voted April 22 to rescind the working agreement concerning the field renovation. An informal agreement had been reached by the two parties in August to work together on a turf field to be used for baseball and softball for district and youth teams.

Colt Field, which has been used as Washington High School’s home field in the past, is maintained by the city. The varsity baseball team occasionally holds practices there, and it’s also used by the middle school baseball team. In recent years, Wash High home games have been played at Wild Things Park, while the softball team uses a field in South Strabane Township.

The work included transitioning to turf and performing extensive drainage improvements at a total cost of about $2 million. The project was to have been paid for through the district’s capital reserve fund.

A sticking point in negotiations dealt with ownership of a parcel of land near the field.

“There’s a property line issue,” Burgess said. “There’s a parcel of land years ago that was erroneously given to the school district that was not supposed to be done that way. The property line issue has to be fixed regardless of what they do. That deals with our state funding for what we get for the park. We have to get that cleared up.”

The school board authorized Solicitor Rebecca Heaton Hall to work with the city solicitor to review proposals regarding that parcel.