Jamestown Community College President Dr. Daniel DeMarte presents multi-sport athletic complex plan to Chautauqua County Planning Board (August 1, 2023)
The Chautauqua County Planning Board has approved a motion of support for Jamestown Community College‘s Diethrick Stadium Multi-Sport Athletic Complex plan.
The Board, which is advisory in nature, heard a presentation about the $30.3 million project from JCC President Dr. Daniel DeMarte.
DeMarte said the main project involves the college accepting transfer of Russell E. Diethrick Park from the City of Jamestown and upgrading it into a turf field that will be able to handle baseball, soccer, and softball games.
He said the State University of New York Capital program would cover 50% of the project cost, with Chautauqua County Government paying 25% or $7.5 million, and JCC picking up the other 25% of the costs.
DeMarte said upgrades to the college’s soccer field are not part of the $30.3 million proposal. He said the three project options before the Planning Board are upgrading the soccer field to a turf field in addition to other updates for around $5.5 million, making Diethrick Stadium a multi-sport complex for $30.3 million, or doing both projects for a total cost of over $35 million.
He has stated that without the stadium project, there is a risk of losing the 160 student athletes enrolled at JCC in addition to making it more difficult to recruit new students.
A motion of support for the Stadium project passed the Planning Board by a vote of 6 to 2 with Melissa Meyers and Dick Patton voting no.
The Planning Board also will rank the three project proposals to then submit for consideration to the Chautauqua County Legislature as part of their 2024 Capital budget considerations this Fall. If funding is approved, JCC also would need approval by the State University of New York to fund the 50% of project costs. It then would go to the New York State Legislature for final funding approval as part of the state’s 2024-25 budget.
DeMarte stated if everything moved forward as planned, he anticipates breaking ground in 2025 with the project being completed by the end of 2026.
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