After Delays, Westervelt Name Now Towers Over UHS Football Field

    After months of discussion, planning, and installation delays, Tuesday saw the long-anticipated completion of the new scoreboard at the Umatilla High School football stadium. A partnership between the school, its athletic boosters, and the Umatilla Kiwanis Club, the sign was part of the larger naming of the football field in the name of former principal John Westervelt.
   Westervelt served as principal of Umatilla High in the 1980’s, and continued to volunteer at the school and within the community as a member of the Kiwanis club until his passing last year. After his death, the club pursued the renaming of the field in his honor, and funded an estimated $7,000 toward the school’s new sign and scoreboard complex, which was to include the name of the field.
   However, mismeasurements during construction resulted in the top of the sign not fitting, leaving the structure unfinished for several months. On Tuesday that all changed, when employees of Umatilla’s Specialty Fabrication and Welding undertook the completion of the project. Joined by Westervelt’s grandson, Mario Jakob, Specialty Fabrication employees, and UHS graduates Trey Foss and Ethan Tripp cut away ill-fitting steel and mounted the scoreboard top.
   “It’s good to finally get it done,” said James Roach, president of the school’s athletic support organization. “It’s been a long time coming.”
   Roach said the boosters joined the Kiwanis club in paying for the sign, with major project sponsors including Florida’s Natural/Umatilla Citrus Growers Association, United Southern Bank, Dr. Jay Cook, and Floors by Scott.
   Westervelt’s widow, Mickey, and son, David, were on hand during the morning to witness the project’s completion.