DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE FOOTBALL/BASEBALL FIELD?

The Limestone County Board of Education has awarded the construction contract on Boss Hill Stadium and Blake Jones field to Consolidated Construction of Huntsville, AL.   

The question I am hearing the most is “When will they start?”  The bid documents did not give a beginning of construction date, only stating construction should be finished by July 30, 2017.  It also states the work on Blake Jones field cannot start until after May 15^th due to the upcoming baseball season.  After the contracts have been signed, there will be a pre-construction meeting at which time a date to begin will be set.

click on picture to enlarge

What is going to occur?  All new lights and light poles on Boss Hill stadium will be installed.  The construction will also concentrate on the east (home) side of the stadium.  The field will remain where it is, but the home side fence will move back for a larger out of bounds area.   

The visitor/middle school dressing room will be demolished along with the press box and all home side bleachers.  The existing concrete pad will be removed as well.  A 20’x27’ addition will be added to the east end of the existing field house.  A new set of bleachers will be added beginning around the 5 yard line on the north end and extending to the 25 yard line on the south end.  

The new grand stand will include 11 rows of bleachers, a reserved section with 100 stadium seats, stairs with handrails, a large press box, and ramps and spaces for wheelchair accessibility.   

On the southeast corner of the field, there will be a new 2500 square foot building containing a new concession stand, men’s and women’s restrooms, and a new middle school/visitor/baseball dressing room. This new facility will be situated in a manner where baseball can use the dressing room, bathrooms and concession stand.  

The backstop on Blake Jones field will be removed from dugout to dugout and replaced with netting above a brick 30” tall wall. There will be new concrete poured over the existing concrete bleachers with aluminum bleachers added.  There will also be a new press box exclusively for baseball.  We will be adding a lot of concrete with ramps to make the field level wheelchair accessible.

This is a brief overview of an extensive project estimated to approach $1.7 million.   I appreciate people’s interest and I welcome emails at Ronald.Christ@lcsk12.org.

Ronald Christ,

Elkmont District Limestone County School Board Member