The following article, written by Klaus Gaebel, is reprinted from The Saugerties Post Star, 10-18-07 TRACK CONTROVERSY CONTINUES By: Klaus Gaebel, Saugerties Post Star , October 18, 2007   While the School Board voted last month to complete the track with 6-lanes and the athletic field with the originally planned configuration, that hasn't stopped opponents from continuing to express their frustrations with the handling of the project. After listening to project executive Andrew Giordano and architect Tom Glynn at a special meeting concerning the track, the Board of Education decided in September that revising the plans would be too expensive and cause substantial delays. At the most recent Board of Education meeting, coaches John Lombardo and Bob Slate indicated they felt their expertise had been ignored, and their knowledge could have been very beneficial in creating a better track and athletic field design than is being constructed. Lombardo urged the board and superintendent to listen more to school staff, as the $28 million building project continues. Citing outside resources available, Lombardo provided a letter from Peter Mahnoney, Director of High Performancec at USA Track & Field, who stated that "schools, architects, and track construction builder's only reference competition rule books for design planning, rather than the more extensive ASBA (American Sports Builders Association) and IAAF (International Associations of Athletics Federations), manuals." Mahoney pointed out that "errors and flaws in the design layout of a facility regularly occur due to the vagueness or lack of coverage of good design and construction principals in the rule books." "In the future, a more collaborative and cooperative approach will help avoid long lasting and expensive mistakes like this one," Lombardo said. Slate echoed Lombardo's comments, indicating he was "very concerned that there are people right now raising issues that need to be addressed in this project, that are being disregarded and ignored." The coach also criticized the placement of the scoreboard, which apparently faces the opposite direction from the entrance, thereby preventing visitors from seeing the score as they approach the field. Slate suggested hiring a clerk-of-the-works type position. He advocated for "someone who's an expert in all matters regarding construction, that can answer to you on a daily basis, and someone from this community that really understands the needs of things here."