No one at the April 11 school board meeting questioned Key West High School’s need for a new football stadium.
But as the price tag approaches $20 million of taxpayer money, some school board members — and loads of baseball supporters — would rather pump the brakes than complete a project that doesn’t adequately serve the school’s football and baseball programs, whose fields back into each other.
“I feel like we’re pushing this down people’s throats,” board member Mindy Conn said at the meeting in Key West. “If we push the entire project to next May, we’ll have time to ensure that some of the baseball program’s concerns are addressed. We just had a meeting with the superintendent, baseball Coach Ralph Henriquez (and other baseball supporters). If we’re going to include some of the additions that baseball wants, then it behooves us to review the entire plan.”
Community member Sam Holland agreed.
“It’s not about baseball versus football. Football needs a new stadium without delay. Meanwhile baseball is number three in the state. With this kind of budget, everyone should be on board.”
One of the main concerns from baseball fans is the proposed replacement of the iconic “11-Time Conch Cafe” concession stand with a portable food truck rather than a permanent building. The design and location of a new baseball press box are also a concern.
Meanwhile, the football side of Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium, which backs into baseball Rex Weech Field is slated to get new bleachers for 3,140 people, new locker rooms, training facilities, a new field surface and several other amenities.
Community member and Key West High graduate Scott Atwell told the school board on April 11, “Both sides of the field are not being recognized in this proposal.” He pointed out that the baseball improvements comprise just 3% of the overall budget. “Three percent doesn’t acknowledge the history of baseball that gave us the privilege of 12 state championships. Acknowledge that history with fairness.”
Former Monroe County tax collector Dee Dee Henriquez, who’s married to baseball coach Ralph Henriquez, told the board, “My concern is what the taxpayers are getting in return for their $19.4 million. The proposed food wagon for a concession stand, to me, is a joke. Conch Baseball deserves better and I hope you realize how we need to revisit this project until the proposal is fair.”
Board member Conn agreed, and Upper Keys board member Sue Woltanski said she would be OK with postponing the project. Her primary concerns involved safety, as the new plans include no warning track between the new baseball outfield and the new football bleachers.
“I would never have designed an outfield like that, with those sharp corners and bleacher steps coming down so close to the baseball outfield,” Woltanski said.
In the end, board members sent Pat Lefere, the district’s director of operations and planning, back to meet with the team at Ajax Building Co. to determine the cost, feasibility and timeline of adding some of baseball’s requests into the project.
The board agreed to move its April 25 meeting from the Upper Keys to Key West to continue the discussion and determine how to proceed.
