SINCLAIRVILLE — The Cassadaga Valley Central School board is beginning to look ahead to a new capital project that will focus on athletic facilities.

The project, which is on track to be voted on in May, is expected to be under construction in the summer of 2024, should it get approved. The total estimated budget for the project sits at $8,605,000, which was recently increased by around $300,000 to accommodate for work to be done on the creek near the school.

One of the main focuses of the project is on the school’s baseball and softball fields, which includes drainage, lighting, home run fences, dugouts, and other general upgrades that will give the fields some necessary upgrades.

There are additional changes being discussed as well, which include renovations to the Middle/High School locker rooms and shower fixtures. Alyssa Caitlin of Young and Wright Architects said that since their last meeting, the showers and locker rooms have come up more as a discussion point.

“Basically, the locker room showers are in significantly poor shape,” Caitlyn said. “When we did the building survey in 2015, those were recommended for replacement at that time.”

Caitlyn provided the cost should the Board want to move forward with just renovating the showers, or renovating the whole gym facility. The base cost of the project as it would include a $1.22 cost per $100,000 of property value. Renovating the showers alone would raise that to $1.47, while doing the whole facility would significantly increase the tax impact to $8.55 per $100,000.

“It’s a rather expensive renovation,” said Caitlyn. “It’s a significant amount of square footage, a lot of equipment and a lot of plumbing.”

At the end of the day, Cassadaga Valley Superintendent Charles Leichner said the school board is always looking at what potential impact the project will have on the taxpayers, and prior to the vote that could be coming in May, there will be additional workshops and discussion before the final project is presented to voters.