Tottenville HS To Receive New Fieldhouse For Athletic Department, BP Oddo and Mayor Announce $12 Million In Funding

You May Look at the Clock and See the 2 Minute Warning in the 4th Quarter; Borough Hall Sees More Time to Play the Game.

Funding will complete design and build of the new John Drennan Fieldhouse  
Last week, Borough President James Oddo announced $12 million in capital funding for a new state-of-the-art fieldhouse for Tottenville High School. The fieldhouse will support the outdoor athletic programs currently in place at the school, including football, cross country, soccer, tennis, softball and baseball.

It will be named for Coach John Drennan, a firefighter and head coach of the Public School Athletic League varsity football team, The Pirates, from 1972 to 1975. Drennan died from injuries sustained in the Watts Street Fire in Manhattan in 1994.

The fieldhouse will include boys and girls locker rooms for their athletic teams, shower rooms and toilet rooms in each locker room, coaches offices and training rooms in each, weight room, janitor’s closet, concession, public restroom, gas room, telephone room, electrical room, mechanical room, four alarm system, air conditioning and sprinkler system.

The project is slated for design, which will take approximately 12-18 months. Once construction begins, the project will take approximately 18 months to complete.

“When we made the difficult decision to break the gridlocked effort to build an indoor aquatic center — its projected cost ballooning and territorial battles rising again as to its siting — in 2019 I told Mayor de Blasio we could achieve higher purposes with his pledged $100 million. With our latest allocation of $12 million to Tottenville High School to build their long sought-after field house, we have now completely fulfilled that commitment,” said Borough President Oddo.

Preparing to sprint. Image Credit – Pexels

“Utilizing these funds, we have acquired and protected part of Goodhue Park, where we will build a new community center for the Children’s Aid Society, as well as enclose their existing outdoor pool. We have preserved forever 19 acres of Camp-O-Ree at the Pouch Camp, ensuring this special natural area will continue to serve children in perpetuity. With our capital investment, we have sparked the city’s ability to commence building a long-term pediatric care facility on the grounds of the Seaview Campus.  And we are adding lighting to Snug Harbor Little League fields so that its kids, like the rest of their friends across Staten Island, will be able to play night games.

And as I mentioned at the beginning, almost seven years to the day after we visited Tottenville back in January of 2015 and were first asked to fund it, we will deliver this much-needed field house facility to help some of the best student-athletes in the city.  The decision became final when I called Councilman Joe Borelli a few months back, and asked him what his project of choice would be with the funding.  He immediately said the field house. That clinched it.

So, in the last week of the last year of our tenure, we at Borough Hall continue to exhaust every moment to deliver for Staten Island.

I thank the Mayor and our partners at the School Construction Authority for collaborating on this latest huge win for the young people of this borough.”

Banner Image: Tottenville High School. Image Credit – NYPL Collections

James Oddo

James Steven Oddo is an American attorney and politician serving as the Borough President of Staten Island. Oddo had previously served as a member of the New York City Council.