Insurance Delays Keeping Repairs To PA Stadium On Hold

[ESPN]

www.panews.com

Insurance delays keeping repairs to PA stadium on hold

Ronnie Thompson has just about given up hopes of having his first Memorial High School spring football game at Memorial Stadium.

Repairs have recently begun on the roof of the stadium's north end zone fieldhouse, but the stadium itself remains off-limits to even stadium grounds supervisor Gary Phillips and his crew.

Almost everything inside the stadium's fences -- the twisted north goal post, the damaged press box and the aluminum bleachers dented, torn and twisted by two fallen light poles -- remains as it was Sept. 24, the day Category 3 Hurricane Rita swept through Southeast Texas.

"Normally, I would have an updated outline of what's going on, but they haven't let us back into that area," Phillips says, referring to his boss, PAISD director of operations Bill Minix, and other school honchos.

Minix says fears that one of the six remaining light poles might fall have closed the stadium to everyone, including the Port Arthur citizens who had been using the track there for daily exercise.

The poles must all be replaced, he said, along with a large section of bleachers. Because their roofs were blown open by the storm, the press box and fieldhouse will require mold remediation of their interiors as well.

The reason repairs haven't begun is because insurance money has been slow to get to the school district.

Larry Redmond, PAISD's assistant superintendent for business and finance, says he hopes he will soon get the go-ahead from the district's insurance company so he can present repair contracts to the school board for its approval.

That would get the reconstruction started.

A low bid to repair three PAISD stadiums, including Memorial Stadium, which was built in 1936 for a reported cost of $75,000, has been received for $1.229 million dollars, Redmond said.

The other two stadiums are the high school's auxiliary stadium, home field for varsity soccer games, subvarsity football games and the district's track meets, and the district's baseball field. Since bids were let, the district decided to do the baseball stadium repair itself and it was completed in time to start the baseball season in mid-February.

But Phillips says several light poles were knocked down at the auxiliary stadium. He says one of them landed on the all-weather track there and remains across the track.

While safety concerns about unsafe light standards keep Memorial Stadium closed, the district's track teams have been allowed to practice at the auxiliary stadium despite storm-damaged light poles there. Phillips wasn't sure why.

Thompson, PAISD's new athletic director and head football coach, says he'll hold some of his spring football practices at the auxiliary stadium if Memorial Stadium isn't ready when the month-long drills begin in late April or early May.

"I don't think lights are going to be a possibility (for spring training), but we need the teaching and we need the filming," Thompson says. "We can do those things at the auxiliary field.

"We've got the other two fields for the teaching. We're going to be ready, set, go."

Six weeks ago, interim athletic director Shane Sinegal raised the possibility that Memorial Stadium might not be repaired in time for the start of next fall's football season.

"That's always a question until they get started on it," Thompson said Wednesday. "But from what Larry (Redmond) and (acting superintendent) Jim Weeks tell me, when they do get started, there will be a bunch of construction going on simultaneously.

"But they have to get all the insurance firm."

Waiting on insurance money is a necessity, Redmond says. He says the district suffered hurricane losses of $13 million, excluding computers for which a value has not been set.

Additional low bids have come back that total $1.593 million to replace ceiling tiles and blown-out windows on eight district campuses, as well as $4 million for roof repairs, Redmond said. Those contracts, too, are awaiting insurance money before they can be signed.

"I'd love to have it for him," he said of having the stadium repaired in time for Thompson's teams to play its spring game under lights, "but this district's not big enough to step out there and do it.

"We don't have that kind of fund balance, and the losses have been horrendous."

[SilsbeeD]

hope they get it fixed soon

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Total :bss

They better have it fixed by October 6th! :evil:

[bigred75]

Don't hold your breath on that one.