Saga of Wilson High's Scoreboard vs. the State

Editor's Note: We considered writing a news story on this "no good deed goes unpunished" tale, but Ben Goldberg, a champion of all things Long Beach youth baseball, told it with the necessary voice of pride and frustration. After months if not years of do-it-yourself labor by the Wilson High School community, to find that the Department of State Architecture's labor rules would leave the scoreboard potentially too expensive to install ... that seems to define bureaucracy. Yet neither Ben nor the community gave up.

Last year at this time, Aaron Hicks, who graduated from Wilson in 2008, decided to give back to the program that gave him his stage for his current pro ball career [Minnesota Twins]. Through our JV baseball coach and 2007 Wilson Alumni Chase Kaesman, Aaron decided to purchase a new $25,000 scoreboard to help upgrade the program and coaching staff he loved.  He had seen the other major improvements by Wilson Baseball Boosters and felt the scoreboard would be the "cherry" on top of the Sunday.

 Last year Wilson Baseball Boosters raised funds that enabled us to: build new batting cages; visitor bull pen area; halo around home plate; new black wind screen; new backboards for the backstop area, and pour cement and plant new sod in places needed to really tie things together at the Skip Rowland Wilson High School field.  The plan was to receive the scoreboard, pull the old one down and slap the new board on the existing base already in the Center Field area.

Well, the road to Hell is truly paved with good intentions because things went terribly wrong after receiving this very generous gift. The Boosters, with the support of Coach Hall and his staff, went to the District to get approval to install this new scoreboard.  Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) explained that they needed to pull the original "approval" for the existing scoreboard to see if the existing base could hold the weight of the new scoreboard.  To the surprise of LBUSD and current Wilson Boosters and coaching staff, there was never "approval" granted for the existing scoreboard.

This created two problems:  There was no way to get approval to install the new board using any of the material from the existing scoreboard, and the existing scoreboard was "technically" in violation of LBUSD policy, and therefore isn't allowed to exist, either. This basically put the installation of the new scoreboard into the hands of The State of California to receive "DSA" (Department of State Architects) approval. 

Normally this process is used for new buildings or structures designed to hold in them students or staff. [Patch wrote about this agency with for holes in overseeing earthquake code compliance at the state's K-12.] This is also used for any structure that stands over seven feet above the ground, "including flag poles," which is why things are always more expensive when you purchase anything for the schools, we learned. If you purchase a flag pole from Home Depot for $50, it can't be installed without an engineer's approval from DSA; but if you buy the $500 DSA pre-approved flagpole, then you don't need to go through the arduous process of getting it approved by the state. Only LBUSD would need to approve the installation.

 So, LBUSD approved the donation of the Aaron Hicks/Cliff Meyer scoreboard. We enlisted the help of State Senator Alan Lowenthal, [the Belmont Shore area's] School Board Member Jon Meyer, Wilson Co-Principal Lew Kerns, LBUSD Superintendent Chris Steinhouser, and many other district employees to help move this DSA approval along as quickly as possible.

Eureka!  Nine months later we were given this highly coveted DSA approval!  The bad news: with this approval came major and expensive installation requirements. We had budgeted $10-15,000 for installation of this magnificent scoreboard. The problem is that because it's under both State and LBUSD-required specification, the installation will run us over $50,000.

Some of this cost is understandable due to the weight and size of this new, very impressive scoreboard. Unfortunately, most of the additional cost is due to "required licensed inspectors" at a rate of $150-an-hour and "prevailing wage" requirements for every person involved with the installation.  These two "requirements" add about $25,000 to the total installation costs.

 I'm asking for any help we can find in the way of donations to help Wilson Boosters install the very generous donation made by Aaron Hicks. This scoreboard will be enjoyed by players and fans for decades and therefore it does make sense to move forward.

We are asking our private and public sector leaders for help in any way they can to get this scoreboard installed in time for the upcoming baseball season. Football is underway, but Bruin baseball is just around the corner.  Wilson HS Baseball was the #1 program in the country in 2007, State Champions in 2010 Legion and has sent hundreds of kids to play college and professional baseball.  WE NEED HELP completing the final step of a one-year and counting process.   Please help if you can.

Sincerely, Ben Goldberg, Wilson Class of '87.

Donations can be made to LB Wilson Baseball, and mailed to Wilson High School, attn.: Andy Hall. Questions? councilman@aol.com