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Schools

Wantagh High School Receives Funds to Fix Baseball Backstop

Legislator Dennis Dunne secured $16,000 of funding for district through community intermunicipal agreement.

The Wantagh Board of Education approved a motion to authorize new county funding to fix ’s deteriorating baseball backstop on Thursday at their monthly general meeting. In order to make the necessary repairs, the school received $16,000 through an intermunicipal agreement between the district and the county.

Nassau County Legis. Dennis Dunne, Sr, R-Levittown,. whose 15th district includes part of Wantagh,  secured the money for project as part of an ongoing community funding program.

“I’ve heard complaints over the last few years about the backstops, including in Wantagh,” said Dunne. “The parents have been mentioning it at games. Former players have been mentioning it. I was talking to members of the school board and I said that if I could help in any way I would.”

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According to Dunne, the county allocates money for the legislative districts to use in order to benefit the community. Through this intermunicipal agreement, the funding can go towards fixing the backstop since it is useful to many residents in the county during travel, playoff and championship baseball games.

“It is not only used for the high school baseball team, but the community,” he said. “I have tremendous baseball in my district, including MacArthur, Wantagh and Seaford, so it was nice to help such a great cause.”

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“Through his efforts he was able to secures funds for us in order to replace one of our old backstops for our championship baseball team,” said Wantagh Superintendent Lydia Begley.

The backstop, which is right by Jerusalem Avenue, will see a complete overhaul including painting the support poles and putting in new screening. Dunne said that he hopes the project will be done before the season starts this spring so that the baseball teams can get use out of it this year.

Begley emphasized how thankful the district was for the generous help of Legislator Dunne after the Board of Education meeting. This year, the county has provided the schools with money for doors, gym mats and technology, totaling about $91,000 in legislative grants, she said.

“As soon as the superintendent mentioned that the school needed this, I jumped on to get it done,” Dunne said. “They are so happy because they don’t have funding available for this area. We wanted to make sure that the schools are able to use money for educational purposes.”

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