Plans build for multi-purpose sports complex

Planning committee forming and construction manager chosen for new building project.

— Continued planning is under way as the Gentry School District moves forward in anticipation of receiving voter approval to restructure bonded debt and make possible the construction of a multi-purpose athletic facility on the Pioneer Lane campus.

School board and community members met at 7 a.m. on Thursday and Friday mornings with Brian Little, Gentry’s football coach and athletic director, to determine interest in participating on a planning committee and to consider a location for the new 292-feet by 172-feet facility.

Hight-Jackson, Inc., the architectural firm chosen to help the district design the facility, suggested two possible locations: 1. facing east at the west end of the parking lot between the football stadium and the baseball-softball complex; and 2. facing south between the football practice field and the baseball diamond.

In discussions Thursday morning, a third suggestion was to build the facility between the high school auditorium and the football stadium so that the facility would be closer to the existing school buildings andadjacent to the track and football stadium.

Drawbacks to the first suggested locations included loss of parking area in the existing parking lot to the north of the stadium, security issues with the building abutting a private drive, possible loss of trees near the softball diamond, and (if built to the east of the baseball diamond) conflict with the likely future site for a new high school building.

A site between the high school auditorium would make the building more accessible for students on rainy days when it would be used for physical education classes and closer to the track and football field for use in preparing for events and activities there, Little said.

Of concern and yet to be fully explored are the moving of utility lines at the third location and the best way to route buses behind the buildings.

On Monday night, school board members listened to proposals from four construction management companies - Baldwin and Shell, Crossland, Flintco, and Nabholtz - to determine whether it would be to the district’s advantage to use a construction manager approach or a hard bid for the project.

After listening to representatives of the four companies and ranking them, the board chose the construction manager approach to the project and Flintco to be the district’s construction manager, contingent upon fee negotiations and approval by voters at the September school board election.

News, Pages 7 on 08/22/2012