Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Assistant Managing Editor EAST LONGMEADOW On the morning of Oct. 13, a team of volunteers arose early and met at the East Longmeadow athletic fields to help assemble the new visitors' bleachers. "Our Building Inspector Dan Hellyer condemned [the visitors'] bleachers," Schools Superintendent Dr. Ed Costa explained. "It was not a surprise to myself and the School Committee we knew it would happen. He [Hellyer] told us that, at some point, the town would cease to allow us to use them." According to Costa, federal regulations aiming to protect children from injury required that Hellyer condemn the bleachers. "They were here from the early '70s," Costa said. "A number of parents were students here and would say 'these came in when I was here.'" Costa said one safety issue was that small children could fall through the bleachers, and that there have been many cases in the U.S. of children being seriously injured or killed from such falls. He added that, while he and the School Committee knew the condemned bleachers needed to be replaced, and the project has been on the town's capital planning agenda for several years, there was no room in the FY06 schools budget to pay for them. The home bleachers were replaced two years ago, he added. Costa said he and former School Committee Chair Tom McGowan started working with various town departments to solve the problem. "We talked with members of the town Appropriations Committee, and Mike McCloud, who is a member of the Appropriations Committee, was instrumental in making sure we could replace [the bleachers] without going the whole season without seats for visiting teams," Costa said. He added that the Department of Public Works' Rich Gale and that department's Superintendent Dave Gramaski helped by removing the old bleachers, which was a hefty task. "They removed the old bleachers, which were rusty old steel beams with pressurized wood slats," Costa said. "It took them several days with a cutting torch [to dismantle and remove the bleachers]." Costa explained that the new bleachers cost $8,000, and that the installation cost would have been prohibitive. "The installation would have been about as much as the bleachers themselves," he said. "I told [the Appropriations Committee]: you get the parts, we'll provide the old fashioned labor." By employing the giving spirit and physical strength of several residents and town employees, Costa said the bleachers were assembled and safe to sit on within one day. "People like Jimmy Rintoul and Bob Wallace ... stayed from sun up with strong black coffee, and we wrapped around five o'clock," he explained. Costa said this project was a great example of several different town departments and residents coming together to help improve the town. | ||||||
