With the unanimous approval from the Mineral County Board of Education, the Keyser High School football stadium will receive the bleachers, lights and synthetic turf needed to open up the school’s first-ever football field, tentatively scheduled for use this fall for the first home game.
The $1.7 million lease/purchase agreement was voted on by board member Kevin Watson and seconded by board member Terry LaRue at their regular meeting Tuesday, followed by the unanimous approval of the lease/purchase agreement for the completion of the KHS Sports Complex.
“We are approving this in the name of Keyser High School,” said Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth. “The Campaign for Keyser High School is responsible for making the payments.”
With the financial group Comvest LTD., Inc. out of Clarksburg supplying the lump sum for the project, the Campaign for Keyser High School will pay back  $211,532.92 annually, with a five-year fixed interest rate of 3.95%.
The interest rate will then adjust one time after the first five years to a rate of 70% prime rate of lending and will maintain that rate for the last five years of repayment.
Keyser High School Principal Charles Wimer said he appreciated the board’s approval that enabled the project to move forward.
“It’s very feasible to be on the field prior to the end of the season,” said Wimer. “We won’t need the field until the third game of the season (the first home game) so that gives us an additional two weeks.”
Wimer explained that waiting for the delivery of the bleachers could cause a hold up on completing the project by the anticipated date.
“The bleachers are the issue,” said Wimer. “The lights, field and track is not the issue.”
Hackworth assured that during the construction of the science wing at Frankfort High School, the steel delivery arrived on schedule.
“It was all steel and there was no hold up. The steel was delivered right on time,” said Hackworth. “The bleachers have been ordered and we are hoping they will be installed in time for at least part of the season.”
The first football game is labeled as an open date, while the second game is away, explained Hackworth.
“It’ll all depend upon the fabrication of the bleachers,” said Hackworth.
Wimer explained that Keyser High School has the first year’s repayment in various funding accounts at the school, as well as several hundreds of thousands of dollars pledged to the Campaign for KHS.
“We have approximately $800,000 pledged for the next five years,” said Wimer. “We have $130,000 in the Keyser High School account, and one donor has guaranteed a $100,000 payment in September.”
Wimer added that the school is very close to having it paid off in five years, even though the original estimate of $1.5 million raised to $1.7 million with the addition of synthetic turf for the stadium — and other high bid items.
When board member Bob Shook asked it would be possible to wait and put turf on the field in a few years to initially save money, Wimer explained that the installation of the turf solves a multitude of issues.
“Without synthetic turf we can only use the field for 16 events a year,” said Wimer, who added that if the field is used for soccer and football, it already exceeds the limit of 16 games. “In terms of scheduling, synthetic turf is a major investment because it erases many issues. We can open it and use it no matter what the weather is. We can bring in regional band competitions, and there’s good money to be made on those.”
Wimer said that if the field is not ready by the first home game, that Potomac State College will allow the Keyser High football team to play on Stayman Field — the same field KHS football players have been playing on since the late 1930s.
“I’ve met with the Provost (Kerry Odell), and he assures us we can have the field if everything is not in place by the first home game,” said Wimer. “So we can go to PSC at least this year.”
Hackworth added that PSC has long range goals to construct a new gymnasium in the near future and that the location of the new gym will be on Stayman field.
Board member Kevin Watson shared his excitement for current and future students at KHS who will utilize the new sports complex.
“The complex is designated for track, girls and boys soccer, band competitions, and even Pee Wee and youth football,” said Watson. “I feel bad for the athletes who had to travel back and forth for 11 years, but I feel very fortunate for future students who have these facilities.”
Board member Terry LaRue said he is thankful there were no serious accidents involving students during those years they had to travel from the school to the South Ends sports complex for practices prior to the establishment of their current activities bus, which transports students.
“We are very fortunate in that time period there were no accidents,” said LaRue. “This has been a long time coming.”