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Lordstown dedicates flagpole, scoreboard

LORDSTOWN — It was a proud day at Lordstown High School on Friday afternoon.

Members of the board of education, joined by residents, held a flag-raising ceremony at the high school.

“Everything you see here is pretty much because of the energy plant,” said Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill, waving his arm to indicate the additions. “And it doesn’t get much better than that.”

A $1 million donation from the Lordstown Energy Center paid for the first phase of the Veterans Memorial Stadium project, a grass soccer field surrounded by an eight-lane, all-weather track.

Lordstown schools received the funds to build the stadium as a part of a negotiated tax abatement agreement with the power plant.

Lordstown schools will receive a base donation of approximately $16.1 million over the 15-year period in addition to sharing with the village net profit tax projected to be between $500,000 to $750,000 annually once the plant is in operation. This is in addition to sharing of income taxes.

The total revenue projected over the 15 years of the abatement is projected to be between $24.1 million to $27.9 million.

What matters most to Carla Click, though, is that the improvements didn’t cost the taxpayers one dollar.

Click, a board member since 2018, said “If we hadn’t brought businesses in, we would not be able to begin or end, our projects.”

In addition to the original funding, the Lordstown School District had a “Finish the Field” fundraiser, where it raised $50,000. Twenty-thousand dollars allowed them to complete the scoreboard, with $30,000 going to a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) center. Additionally, updates to the elementary school are in the works.

Drew Schneider, plant manager of Lordstown Energy Center, said, “We’re happy as long as it gets done.”

Click added, “We’re excited and proud of these initiatives.”

Donations for the stadium also came from the Cafaro Family Foundation and Holton Incorporated.

wwolfgang@tribtoday.com

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