BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK - Costs of purchases included in the 2006-07 school budget are becoming a reality.

The Board of Education Aug. 10 approved a resolution allowing the district to spend up to $3.14 million for the purchase of numerous capital equipment items.

Included among the purchases are a new running track at East Brunswick High School and improvements to the football field.

The track became a topic of interest in April after residents voted the school budget down. There were rumors that if the Township Council cut the proposed tax increase, the new track would be among the items sacrificed. Council members, however, said they never gave any indication the cut was a possibility.

The district is spending $337,500 to renovate the track and athletic fields at the high school as part of a new lease-purchase program being financed over five years.

The track is about 21 years old and for years has had problems with portions of the surface blistering.

The project is still in its very beginning stages, as the district is choosing an architect and will later draw schematics and go out to bid. Students will start the school year using the track and field, and will do so this fall while these first steps are completed, district officials said.

The $3.14 million expenditure includes numerous other items, including a boiler at Chittick Elementary School, and heating and piping for the Frost Elementary School. Also included are HVAC/heat pump units for Bowne-Munro, Chittick and Warnsdorfer schools as well as the high school and district administration building.

Other purchases include security camera additions for Churchill Junior High School, and public address system improvements at Churchill and the high school.

Parking lot lighting improvements are also in the works for the high school.

All incidental and related costs, in addition to the items themselves, will be paid for through a lease-purchase financing deal that cannot exceed five years, according to the resolution.

The board selected the Apris Group as financial adviser and McManimon & Scotland as special counsel in order to prepare the bids and closing documents. The Apris Group will mail the bid documents to firms that buy the tax-exempt leases.