LEBANON — The reconstruction of Lebanon High School’s six-lane track is moving swiftly and is slightly under budget, school board chairman Dick Milius said last week.
“The project is a week or two ahead,” Milius said, adding that its expected price tag of $1.7 million will be $100,000 less. However, he noted that fundraisers hoping to pull in $300,000 to defray the project’s overall cost are likely to come up short.
“The district is on the hook for $1.6 million, and whatever can be raised now would be money it could save,” Milius said. “But some folks have been a little bit reluctant to (donate) because the district had already agreed to pay.”
Brooke Herndon chairs the nine-member Bring Back the Track committee, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit linked to the Friends of Lebanon Recreation for donation purposes. She said the committee has taken in $69,925 but that outstanding pledges and grant requests give her confidence the final total by November will be roughly $150,000.
“It’s tricky to ask people to give when they know the project is going forward whether they donate or not,” said Herndon, Kimball Union Academy’s deputy director of development.
Herndon noted her group is competing with projects to renovate Campion Rink and the Carter Community Building Association’s Witherell Recreation Center for philanthropic dollars.
“If the board had launched a fundraising effort eight months before they decided to put the project in motion, it would have helped,” Herndon said. “But this way creates more community ownership of the project.”
Milius estimated it would have taken two years or more to raise significant donations for the track and that, by then, the cost of the project would have gone up. The school board chairman said he stands by the choice.
“That track had to be dealt with, and we were looking at costs escalating year after year,” Milius said. “If we’d said the district won’t pay for it all and the rest has to be given, we would probably have gotten some bigger donations, but there were no guarantees.
“It’s important for our track athletes to have home meets and for it to be there as a community resource for walking and running. Even the National Guard has used it on occasion.”
Milius said reconstruction of the track site has allowed for vastly improved drainage to be installed below the surface.
“During the freeze and thaw cycles, you could see the fence poles around the track being pushed a foot and a half out of the ground,” he said. “According to the engineers, that problem should be solved. But if you’re going to make this sort of investment, you have to make sure it’s maintained and the situation doesn’t happen again.
“My information is we should be good for quite a long time once the project is finished.”
Lebanon has not hosted a home track meet since 2016 and has not hosted multiple meets during a season in nearly a decade because of its oval’s deterioration.
The track was resurfaced in 2012, but former Raiders coach Andrew Gamble told the Valley News in 2018 that the work was shoddy because it went to the lowest bidder without consideration for quality. The synthetic surface put down in 2012 was only an eighth of an inch thick instead of the quarter-inch that lasts roughly 10 years, Gamble said.
Gamble displayed photographs showing lane numerals and other markings visible under the 2012 resurfacing, as well as tire tracks from application machinery. The botched job contributed to Gamble’s resignation as track coach. The former Lebanon High teacher is now a labor relations specialist at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Education.
Lebanon’s boys track team won the Class I outdoor title seven consecutive times from 2004-10 and was Division II’s runner up in 2011, when the NHIAA switched labeling formats.
The Raiders were champions again in 2014, even as their track surface began to loosen and crack. Portions would soon slide loose from the asphalt below or crumble at the edges.
Lebanon’s girls outdoor track team was second in Class I in 2006 and tied Hanover for the title a year later. The team captured four consecutive championships from 2008-11 and was runner-up in 2016.
The boys and girls track programs included roughly 100 competitors back then, when the school’s enrollment was around 800. Enrollment is about 600 now.
Kevin Lozeau, Lebanon’s 10th-year track coach, said his program’s new surface may not pay immediate dividends in the number of competitors but should boost his students’ zeal.
“We’re not hurting for numbers, but it will be good for the kids to feel they’re part of something that’s cared about,” said Lozeau, who had roughly 60 boys and girls on his team this spring. “The consistency for training and the pride in having a venue that’s worthwhile to train on will be big.”
Lebanon’s football field is surrounded by the school’s track and, with an eye toward its reconstruction, this fall’s first three football games are on the road. The Raiders are scheduled to host Souhegan on Sept. 24 for their first home football contest.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.