Wiley Pavilion will get $2 million modernization
New community board will oversee operations at East Side athletic field
Community members, Bills great Thurman Thomas and a Buffalo Bisons representative were among those named to a reconstituted community board for Johnnie B. Wiley Athletic Pavilion on Thursday by Mayor Byron W. Brown.
The mayor also announced that more than $2 million in contracts have been awarded for previously announced work to build a state-of-the-art football field, baseball field and refurbished track for the neglected outdoor facility, which will be used by the Buffalo Public Schools and the East Side community at the former War Memorial Stadium site.
“I think we have outlined a very good plan, a solid plan for the facility that will give the various sports [leagues] and school district [what they need], what the community deserves and requires, and what the children of this community require,” Brown said inside the Wiley tower building at Jefferson Avenue and Best Street.
“Today is, I think, a long time coming,” said Council Member Brian Davis, who praised the mayor for committing to make the facility “the marquee we all thought the Johnnie B. Wiley Sports Pavilion could be.”
Brown announced that the Buffalo Public Schools will soon sign a contract to manage the site and maintain maintenance and security during daytime hours.
Bisons General Manager Mike Buczkowski said the organization was satisfied by the new accountability and oversight of the site, and would contribute necessary funds to ensure that the baseball field would be top-notch.
“On behalf of the Rich family and the Bisons organization, we will do our part to have Johnnie B. Wiley Stadium come alive again,” Buczkowski said.
In addition, the mayor announced that work is to begin Aug. 1 on improvements to the tower building’s first floor for use in tutoring and other community needs. He said the Department of Public Works had cleaned up the second floor of bird droppings and refuse, will replace the boarded-up windows and wait for the new board to recommend how to complete the unfinished second floor.
“This should be a place where children can socialize in a nurturing environment, and while they’re not playing, be here for computer labs and tutoring and mentoring and all kinds of helpful activities that will improve the lives of children in this community,” Brown said.
Funding totaling $2 million comes from a still-active U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant earmarked for Wiley in the early 1990s — money that went unspent despite the facility’s decline.
A $200,000 grant for the football field was obtained through the Bills and the Buffalo office of Local Initiatives Support Corp. New Era Cap Co. also has offered grant funding.
Bills great Thomas said he would seek more.
“With the Buffalo Bills lending some money, I’m going to be at Mr. Wilson’s Hall of Fame induction this year trying to get a little bit more money out of him,” he joked.
Citing his concern for inner-city youth, Thomas also promised to stay involved.
“You’ll see more of me down here. I have told some people I want to do whatever I can to make this an even better situation.”
The board includes Cedric Holloway and Joanne Wiley, longtime advocates for the site’s renewal and the children of the late Wiley, a community activist, as well as Dorothy Hill, who was a close friend of Wiley’s.
“This, I think, is essential for our community, to have an outlet for youth to be involved with sports, and with tutoring as well,” said Holloway, a Buffalo police officer who runs a mentoring program in the Wiley tower building.
Dave Thomas, the Buffalo schools’ director of physical education and athletics, who will also serve on the board, called the day’s announcement “the second rising of Johnnie B. Wiley Stadium. We’re all thrilled we can put this back on the map where it should have been a long time ago.”
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