Greendale High School will be an exciting place Friday night. The talented, high-scoring Panthers, ranked 2nd in the CNI weekly poll of area football teams, play their first home game of the season at 7:00 against archrival Greenfield, and unveil their brand new artificial turf.
I had the chance to see the turf up close this week and it’s gorgeous. If you only saw that turf, you’d swear it was an NFL or college field. Every yard line and hash mark is beautifully marked. The pro-style goalposts have those little flags on top that let you see the wind direction. The turf is surrounded by a spotless running track.
So how much did it cost? Half-million? Three quarters-million? One million? And is there a big tax increase on the horizon?
The new field cost $689,000, but the school district paid $250,000, a little over one-third of the cost. The rest came from donations. Greendale NOW reports, “The (Touchdown) club received several anonymous donations, the proceeds of a brat fry by Greendale’s Youth Football Organization and $60,000 from the Greendale Panther Athletic Booster Club.”
Tax increase? Early estimates have the Greendale district REDUCING the school tax levy by almost five percentage points that would put next year’s school tax levy increase at under two percent.
Franklin increases its school tax levy by 11.7% and what do we get?
Congratulations, Greendale for a job well done!
This site has pictures of the new field.
