The 2014 fall high school sports season is underway, but a two-year-old issue with the Lehighton Football Stadium remains a hot topic of discussion for the school district's finance committee.

In the summer of 2012, a safety inspection at the stadium revealed structural concerns with the bleachers, an upper railing that was about 12 inches too short and stability issues with the press box, which were addressed at the time with wooden beams for support."We've made a couple of minor tweaks since then," Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said last week. "The concern is still the stability of the structure on the ground."For what will now be a third consecutive football season, Lehighton will close the top three rows of home bleachers. Use of the press box is also cut in half."Why can't we take money and fix them," asked board member Hal Resh at a meeting last week."We are going into the Anthracite League, and new visitors are going to be coming here for the first time. The first thing they are going to see is a blocked-off top of the bleachers," Resh said.Board member Rocky Ahner said, "People aren't supposed to be up there, yet I go to every football game and I see people using the whole press box."His colleague William Hill Jr. said, "I've been screaming about the bleachers for two years."Hill asked why the work couldn't be done by "skilled mechanics on Lehighton's staff."Cleaver said the issue could be put before the district's buildings and grounds committee, but it doesn't meet again until Sept. 9.The bleachers will remain closed off, Cleaver said, pending any action by the full board."I think letting it go would be another blemish on this school district's credibility as far as what are we doing to keep people safe," Resh said. "I don't have any problem voting yes when it comes to the safety of the people. We keep putting money into our fund balance. Why don't we spend some here and stop sitting on our hands."Lehighton's first home football game is Sept. 5 against Minersville.The district is moving forward with plans to build a new $5 million athletic stadium near the high school."The bid documents are coming together," Cleaver said, regarding that project."We're hoping that could go out to bid and we could get those bids back by the end of the year. Ideally, we'd like to start construction as soon as track season is complete."The project would include home and visitor grandstands seating up to 2,500 people, a press box, field house and the installation of a multipurpose turf field.