Mt. Pleasant Voters Approve $9.7M Athletics Facilities Bond By Wide Margin

Mount Pleasant School District’s $9.7 million athletics facilities referendum that promises to markedly improve the high school and middle school complex’s sports fields was resoundingly approved Tuesday night.

Passed by a 3-to-1 margin with an impressive turnout of nearly 1,600 voters, the community enthusiastically supported the project that will see the Westlake High School main field get artificial turf and lights, two other fields reconfigured to become regulation-sized playing surfaces along with improved drainage and improvements to the baseball and softball diamonds on the campus.

The final tally, including absentee ballots, was 1,191 voters supporting the bond with 398 opposed.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Peter Giarrizzo said he was elated at the level of community backing, likely, at least in part, to effective communication that the bond would have not cause property taxes to rise by the time money is borrowed for the work. When debt service from the bond begins to appear in the district’s 2023-24 budget, other debt will have been retired, offsetting the expense.

“I’m like overwhelmed by the margin,” Giarrizzo said moments after the results were announced at the Westlake High School gym. “I think this is amazing. This really shows, it proves to me and shows me that we have a really strong partnership with our community.”

Mount Pleasant had scheduled an identical proposition two years ago, also set for the last Tuesday in March 2020, but the pandemic forced school officials to cancel the vote. Only the cost of the project changed, rising from $9,085,000 to $9,770,000 since 2020.

However, Board of Education President Michael Horan said by waiting the two years there would be no additional taxes added to residents’ property tax bills, even temporarily. For Horan, that was likely a big selling point.

“I think (with) the two-year hiatus there was a lot of pent-up demand for it,” Horan said. “People were upset that we had to make the decision two years ago not to go forward with it in the pandemic, and I think a silver lining to the pandemic is that would have cost a couple of hundred (dollars) on your taxes. This is not going to cost you anything additional.”

Donna Pirro, the district’s director of physical education, health and athletics, said Tuesday night’s results has her excited for the district, its student athletes and the future of Westlake High School athletics.

She said having to find alternate sites for practices, including asking neighboring school districts for use of their facilities, and having to play home games on the road and at neutral sites had become a burden for the district and its students. The community will have facilities that will be on par with other districts throughout Section 1.

After rain, the soggy fields have also posed injury risks to athletes playing the games, Pirro said. Westlake High School is one of only seven schools in the section, out of more than 70, not to have an artificial turf field.

“It just deserved to have pride in their school and this facility and be afforded every opportunity that they should rightfully have,” Pirro said. “We’re not asking for things tremendously out of the ordinary.”

Under the schedule that the district has presented, work is scheduled to begin on the main competition field following the completion of next fall’s football season and be ready for the 2023 season. Work will be done on the other five fields as next year’s sports seasons conclude.

The district will need to submit its plans and receive approval from the state Education Department.

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/