Board OKs $630K for stadium project
BOYERTOWN >> The Boyertown Area School Board has moved forward on the $5.4 million stadium project authorizing two contracts for its design, as well as several other capital projects related to athletics worth as much as $630,000.
The first is with KCBA Architects at an amount not to exceed $337,549. Board members Christine Neiman, Ruth Dierolf and Clay Breece voted no.
Under the terms of the contract, the architects will arrange for the demolition of the existing grandstand and design a new one, as well as design a field house with toliet rooms, two concession stands, three ticket booths, storage a platform for disabled visitors on the visitor side, new fencing and top-dressing the field.
The architects contract also includes designing a full-service kitchen at the home-side concession stand, with a construction cost cap of $100,000 as well as upgrades to the softball competition field, including dug-outs, storage, lighting and concessions; and a 6,000 square-foot maintenance building.
A second contract is with the engineering form of Barry Islett and Associates in an amount not to exceed $293,000. They are costs related to related to the handicapped access, Title IX, and athletic and maintenance modernization projects, according to the agenda of the Dec. 18 meeting were both votes occurred.
Both contracts were recommended at the Dec. 11 meeting of the board’s facilities and finance committees, said School Board President Steve Elsier.
The Islett contract is for $273,000 with an additional $20,000 if the district proceeds with bid and construction phases of the team room building, grounds building and two auxiliary turf fields.
Elsier explained that early in 2018 the board was “thrown a curve ball with the issues at the
multi-use stadium.”
The report by Islett found severe structural deterioration in the 33-yearold stadium due primarily to water penetration into the structure. The board ultimately decided to knock down the stadium and build a new one, but also took it one step further, said Elsier.
“After a lot of work, we landed in a good place with a master plan” for future capital projects related to the athletic facilities, he said. Both contracts address designing some of the additional work in order to have it ready to go “if and when future boards decide to move forward with it.”
As a result, the architect’s contract also includes instructions to “design and secure land development permits and approvals so that the a team room, storage building, 2,400-squarefoot grounds keeping building and two auxiliary artificial turf fields” are ready to construct.
However the architects are to “omit bidding and construction phases.”
The turf fields project will include “lighting, fencing, utilities, storm water design, ball nets, and sound system,” according to the vote.
Designing those fields “is a waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Neiman. “If this project does not happen for five or 10 years down the line, we will have to re-do stuff, guaranteed. We’re spending money we don’t have.”
She and Dierolf also questioned whether the kitchen plans will include the re-use of any of the existing equipment, with Dierolf adding she could not vote for the contracts without that information.
“We’re paying for design,” said board member David Lewis. “To quibble over the re-use of kitchen equipment should be in anyway holding up this aspect of the project. We need out designers to get working on the whole plan.”
“Where does everybody think all this money is coming from?” Neiman said when the board began discussing the Islett contract.
“We’re looking at the project wholistically,” said Elsier. “When we put it in the plan, it sets the tone for future boards, whether they choose to do the project or not.”
Later in the meeting, after the vote, Breece said full, open discussions are being constrained by the board’s use of Roberts Rules of Order.
“I would love to have a full discussion with board members,” said Breece.
“Talk to me about why building a new stadium is a good idea, but we can’t do it when we’re dancing around Robert’s Rules all the time.”
In November, the board voted to spend more than $1 million for new grandstands, saving $100,000 by taking advantage of the contractor’s slow season.
But because the financing for the project is not yet in place, the board used money from its capital projects fund, with the idea that once financing is in place, the fund would be reimbursed.
At the Dec. 18 meeting, the board also adopted a formal resolution to reimburse that fund once the financing is secured. Breece joined the other six board members in voting in favor of that resolution.