Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
School District 55 officials are seeking bids to replace the landing on the Husky Field grandstands.
Rob Younger, a high school science teacher and football coach, told the School Board Monday night that an athletics facilities committee is recommending replacing the landing immediately and taking more time to plan other improvements and repairs.
Last summer, when Younger and the board started talking about replacing the grandstand, he told he would come back in January with a report, he said. Since then, a committee has toured Oregon and looked at other new facilities. The committee has met with the district’s architect, Reid Anderson of gLAs Architectural Group of Eugene.
“The initial part we’ve got to fix is that landing,” Younger said. “It is unsafe, and we need to do something about that. We need to get that fixed right now.”
Instead of spending a half million dollars on a bigger replacement project, Younger said, the landing needs to be repaired and built to last a generation or two, so that it doesn’t come back as an issue in 10 years.
The grandstand roof covers the seating, but it doesn’t reach all the way over the landing, he said, which has led to the deterioration.
“What we need is a cement landing, something that can take the weather,” he said, something “weatherproof compared to wood.”
When the landing is replaced, before or after the March 1 track season, the landing will need to be built eight inches to a foot back from the track, Younger said. Right now, the landing is so close that the eighth lane cannot be used for some events, such as hurdles.
The landing also should include five to eight storage units where the track program can store equipment during the season rather than carrying it out to the field from the high school.
The project should cost less than the $75,000 the district has already set aside for work on the grandstands, Younger said. Even if the eventual plan is to build a new grandstand, “we will still use that concrete landing as the foundation and base.”
The committee would like to make sure the landing, and eventually the visitors’ side landing, will be built to look like the locker room, which has a block exterior, Younger said. “Let’s not make it just blah concrete” but rather “something that looks reasonably nice from the street.”
As far as the grandstand, “we really would not want to go away from that kind of style,” Younger said. It’s covered and keeps fans out of the weather. “It really leads to a much nicer environment.”
Younger explained that he is most proud of the people and the industry that built Sweet Home, timber, and he said a new grandstand should be constructed with wood.
The primary foundation in the grandstand is in good shape, Younger said. The seating and structure need work.
In touring other schools, such as Tillamook, the committee found many schools are switching to artificial turf, Younger said. He thinks that more than half of Oregon schools will be using it within the next four to five years.
The committee wants to take more time planning the athletic complex as a whole and say, “How are we going to get the best bang for the money spent and really do some intelligent spending instead of just saying, let’s do it.”
The landing project had an estimated cost of $55,000 last year, Maintenance Supervisor Ron Andrews said. With wood treatment and storage units included, he thought it might cost $70,000 to $75,000.
School Board members were interested in seeing a breakdown on the costs for the landing with and without the block finish and the storage units.
For that reason, Supt. Larry Horton said, he will return to the board with it in February before awarding a contract.
District policy allows the superintendent or his designee to enter into contracts for less than $75,000 after an informal bidding process with at least three bidders.
Present at the meeting were board members Ken Roberts, John Fassler, Lena Neuschwander, Diane Gerson, Jeff Lynn, Chanz Keeney, Jason Redick and Mike Reynolds. David VanDerlip was absent.
In other business, the board:
– Accepted a donation of $350 from Diane and Gus Gerson to be placed in the Sweet Home Economic Development Matching Fund Account.
– Approved updates to policies and administrative rules governing district goals, a drug-free workplace, a mother-friendly workplace, criminal history records checks and fingerprinting and administering medications to students.