At Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of the Palisades High board of directors, project co-leaders Bob Jeffers and Jim Bailey updated the progress of the planned all-weather football field and track at Stadium by the Sea. They also announced that Mike Skinner, who spearheaded the Palisades Recreation Center’s Field of Dreams makeover, is donating $10,000 and that an additional $30,000 is being donated by AYSO’s Region 69, headed by Commissioner Debbie Held. “Bob gave me a call asking for ideas about fundraising,” said Skinner, who was named Citizen of the Year in 2004. “This is definitely something I want to be a part of because I coached on this field. My son, Ryan, played football his senior year at Pali. So this is just my thing.” Skinner’s donation will be used for preliminary architectural design and AYSO’s contribution will go towards surveying as well as construction documents. “I would like to thank Palisades High for giving the community the opportunity to pursue this project,” Held said. “AYSO is happy to continue its support of the school through its contributions and grant money that it applied for and received’specifically $5,000 from the Junior Women’s Club.” Larry Foster of Bellinger, Foster and Steinmetz, the design firm assigned to the project, gave a slide presentation with before and after images of the facility. He said one of the primary changes will be moving the existing field 15 feet north to accommodate a full eight-lane track. The proposed $1.4 million project will consist of (1) replacing the existing natural grass playing field with a soft and durable Field Turf synthetic grass and (2) replacing the current dirt running track with a rubberized all-weather surface. Jeffers and Bailey are hopeful that construction will begin after graduation in June and be completed in time for the start of the football season in September. Anyone interested in donating to the project should call Jeffers at 230-8914 or Bailey at 408-6761. The Board also approved the the hire of Aquatic Design Group to design the on-campus pool, a $2.4- million project expected to take four years.
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