School board to replace high school stadium 33-year-old damaged structure to be torn down, make way for new facility
COLEBROOKDALE » Facing increasing costs and an uncertain future in pursuing repairs to the stadium at the high school, the Boyertown Area School Board will formally vote June 12 to tear down the 33-year-old stadium and build a new one.
The decision was reached at a facilities committee meeting on Tuesday, May 29, at which the results of a study by Tomasz Slowik, an engineer with Barry Isett & Associates Inc., concluded that structural repairs to the stadium could top $2.5 million.
That estimate would not include some of the other repairs needed and would also not include improvements to make the stadium complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
By contrast, a new stadium could cost roughly the same amount of money, and include upgrades and better access for the disabled.
Questions about the structural integrity of the stadium were first raised officially in a January report by Isett that looked into water penetration problems at the stadium.
Further investigation into the stadium’s problems revealed only more severe and more expensive issues.
As the investigation has gone on, the school board has been forced to first, move this year’s
graduation to the Santander Arena in Reading and, more recently make the decision to set up temporary bleachers for home athletic events in the fall.
The possibility that the stadium might have to be replaced was first raised in a presentation made to the facilities committee on May 14.
It noted that the repair option could cost between $2.5 million and $3 million, would not include any upgrades and suffers from “a high degree of uncertainty.”
Replacing the stadium, on the other hand, would cost between $2 million and $3 million and allow for upgrades to bathrooms, the press box, concession stands, as well as make the stadium compliant with the disabilities act.
Whatever the cost ends up being, resident Donald Fry is organizing efforts to help pay for it.
“We were going to organize fundraising regardless of what the school board decided,” Fry said after the meeting.
Preliminary plans are in the works for a community concert in the fall, and sponsors have already begun to step forward, he said.
“Our community has a real stake in that stadium and we want to provide a way for people to take part in getting the project done,” Fry said.
Once plans are solidified, more details will be forthcoming, he said.