POTTSTOWN >> The long over-worked school district fields along North Franklin Street may be getting a $330,000 upgrade if the school board decides to move forward.
But that is not at all certain given the discussion Monday night which ended in the decision being put off for another month.
At issue are two fields on the ground between the high school and middle school which are used for football practice, baseball, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and physical education classes.
According to facilities director Robert Kripplebauer, they are scheduled for more than 450 events annually, with the heaviest use in the spring through the fall.
Dusty, with sparse grass and a reputation for having too many stones, and for draining poorly after heavy rains, the fields have about 50 games and 215 practices in the fall season alone, according to Kriplebauer.
Add to that, the fact that the fifth and sixth grades use the fields for recess, 12 classes of roughly 25 students each, which adds another 300 children a weekday to the total usage of the fields.
Board member Katina Bearden said those fields have needed work since when she was in high school. She agreed they need work, but would hope the district could pursue grants and other methods of covering the cost so the work will not be a burden on taxpayers.
“I also don’t want to see a lot of change orders,” she said.
That would be why the administration has recommended hiring O & S Assoc. for $21,750 to draw up a design for the work and specifications for the bid. Kripplebauer said another $7,000 in cost are possible for the work, but would be reimbursable.
The project would include what Kripplebauer called “soil amendments to minimize compaction and improve safety and enhance drainage, proper crowning and contouring the field area” for better drainage.
The project also envisions an irrigations system for dry periods.
The current rough estimate for the project is $332,380, which does not include the design of specifications costs.
But that is too much money for the district to spend on a non-essential, said board member Thomas Hylton.
Already, the district was forced to add the cost of new roofs for the elementary schools projects.
“From the original elementary school bids in 2012, we have now spent an additional $7.3 million, for a total of $31.2 million, and we’re still not done,” said Hylton.
In 2013, a consulting firm laid out a plan for $8 million in additional facilities spending over an eight-year period.
Now “O&S is now calling for $9.4 million worth of facilities work from 2017 through 2023. And that doesn’t include the playing field or the electrical work at the high school,” he said.
He said until the district provides the line-item budget he has sought for years, he cannot support this kind of spending.
But he was sharply contradicted by board member Polly Weand, who said it was Hylton who pushed for the repairs to the elementary schools instead a single consolidated campus, so he should stop complaining about cost over-runs.
“This is what you get with old buildings,” she said.
“The kids have a right to their athletics,” Weand said, adding that although she also does not want to further the taxpayers, that some student athletes could lose scholarships as the result of the fields not allowing peak performance.
But board member Ron Williams said he too was unconvinced, but rather than vote against the project, instead proposed tabling it to the next meeting, which is what happened.
The board did agree, however, to replace an unsafe electrical panel in the building trades shop at a cost of $36,575.
Board member Kurt Heidel said the panel caught fire last year.
