With a new request for permanent lights for the Staples football field still to be decided, Staples football parents have pledged $15,000 to pay for temporary lights if Staples hosts a semifinal championship night game Nov. 30.
Disclosure of the gift from the Staples Gridiron Club Inc. was made by Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon in a memorandum to Board of Education members distributed today in advance of the board’s Monday night meeting.
Landon said if Staples is victorious in its Thanksgiving Day game against Fairfield’s Warde High School, it will host the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic League (CIAC) semifinal game on Tuesday, Nov. 30.
He said CIAC rules mandate that the semifinal and final football games be played on lighted fields to maximize attendance and revenues. He asked the Board of Ed to authorize asking town planning boards for permission to erect the temporary lights.
He said if approval is given as it has for temporary lighting in the past ֖ the Wreckers will practice under lights from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 29 and play under the lights the next day beginning at 5 p.m.
The lights will be turned off approximately 30 minutes after the end of the game.
Neighbors who have opposed the new request for permanent lights told a Board of Ed meeting Nov. 8 that they will not object to temporary lighting for a championship game.
Similar temporary lighting was erected at the field in 1997, 2001 and 2002 for conference football games.
The Board of Ed Monday will take up a revised set of educational specifications to be approved in moving ahead with a request to town boards for permanent lights at the field.
