Winamac Community High School will soon have some improved athletic facilities. The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved upgrades to the running track, soccer field, and baseball field at its meeting Monday.
The running track will be re-coated after sections have worn out since it was installed in 2002. Part of the track will also have to be repaved because of a dip that has formed. The board opted to choose a more expensive proposal from Leslie Coatings, since they offered a top coat of three-eighths of an inch, rather than one-sixteenth of an inch, and they were the company that originally installed the track. Superintendent Dan Foster expects the pavement repairs to be finished by the spring track season, while re-coating will be done next summer.
Additionally, the board had to decide whether the soccer field would get a new concession stand or if the old one from the baseball field would be renovated for use there. The board decided to go with the new building, rather than repair something that would have to be replaced in the future, accepting a $7,000 bid from Dave Pugh. Foster says it’s a good time to build a new structure, since the funds are available, “We’ve been going through and looking at appropriations and stuff, and in the line where these items would be taken from, in the 2015 budget which now ends in December, so just a few months, we’ve only used 24 percent of our appropriations. We actually have $228,000 dollars available right now.”
Meanwhile, the baseball field will get a new two-story building housing a concession stand and restroom on the first floor and a press box on the second floor. The board voted to accept a bid for just under $25,000 from Dave Pugh for construction, but members still have to decide whether to build a septic tank or a pump to connect the new building with the sewer system. Pugh was also selected to rebuild the dugouts.
