Hermon athletic complex adding facilities

HERMON – Improvements to the high school’s athletic complex are nearing completion, and volunteers hope athletes and fans will be able to enjoy the revamped facilities before the fall season ends.

Members of the Greater Hermon Community Athletic Complex Committee are completing the installation of new stadium bleachers for the soccer field, a restroom and a main entrance to the complex.

“The key here is that we’re doing this for the community, not just the school,” said John Keith, a volunteer working on the bleacher site Friday afternoon.

Three years ago the committee raised money to install lights for the high school soccer field, said Paul Soucy, Hermon High School’s athletic director. Last fall and winter the group focused its efforts on building a new tennis complex on the high school site, but voters refused to partially fund the proposed $1.3 million project.

The fall improvements have been primarily funded by monetary and in-kind donations, Soucy said.

The permanent bleachers will seat 570 spectators, replacing the old portables, he said. The school department paid for one set of the bleachers, at a cost of about $21,000, while private donors, the boosters club and the athletic department funded the second set.

Two restrooms will be attached to the concession stand and storage building by the soccer field.

Bricks will run from the parking lot pavement to an archway entrance to the complex. The brick archway will include a donor wall, which will list the numerous donors and volunteers who helped in the project. Crushed rock, which will branch after the archway, will lead spectators either to the soccer field or to the future site of the high school tennis courts.

The complex improvements are among a list of upgrades the committee would like to see on the high school property. Soucy said a master plan, developed in 2003, allowed for an outdoor track, tennis courts, outdoor basketball courts and an expansion of the field hockey field, which at present is not regulation size for competition.

“Hopefully this will be more comfortable and fan-friendly,” said Barry Pottle, while working at the site Friday afternoon.