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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

CALERA – A new video scoreboard will stand at Calera High School during the coming football season thanks to the efforts of the Calera High School Football Boosters and the support of the Calera City Council.

During a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 17, the Calera City Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the construction of a Daktronics video scoreboard at Ricky M Cairns Memorial Stadium with $50,000 put toward construction and install. The total cost for the project is approximately $350,000 to $400,000.

“We are definitely grateful to Mayor Graham and our City Council for their support,” Calera coach Scott Rials said.

The remaining cost of the project will be paid for by the Calera High School Football Boosters who plan to secure a loan from Central State Bank which will be paid back through sponsorship pledges from local businesses with several anchor partners already signed on. According to the boosters, they plan to have the loan paid off by 2030.

“We’re just very happy that the city is supporting the program as they always do in the community,” said Loren Richardson, president of the Calera High School Football Boosters.

The new video scoreboard is planned to begin construction within the next 10-12 weeks in order to be completed in time for the football season this fall. The new video scoreboard will be located on the other side of the field across from the current scoreboard and will be visible to Highway 25.

In addition to providing an updated display of scores during games, the new scoreboard will allow the booster club to raise funds by selling advertisements as well as use its display for a variety of extracurricular events such as graduation or for hosting city movie nights.

“This is way more than just a scoreboard for our kids. (We can have) advertisements, movie night, graduation—there’s so much you can use it for,” Rials said. “We think our kids have earned it… I think it will be great.”

In other business, the Calera City Council approved the following during the meeting:

• Resolution adopting police policies, media relations, electronic mail, department use of social media and administrative communications
• Resolution for contract for professional engineering services
• A resolution authorizing legal action against a taxpayer for unpaid taxes

The next regularly scheduled Calera City Council meeting will take place on Monday, April 7 at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. with a work session prior at 5:45 p.m.