By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The Cardinal athletes have outrun the turf and track and Elton Brown Field and Bill Kimble Track outside Hoisington High School. Sort of. The turf installed 13 years ago actually outlived its warranty by half a decade, but the facilities are in dire need of an upgrade. The USD 431 Board of Education took action at Monday's meeting, approving a $1.597 million replacement of both the turf and track.
Superintendent Patrick Crowdis reached out to five companies for the work, receiving updated bids from Wichita-based Hellas, Mammoth Sports Construction out of Lenexa, and Andover's ATG. The board had previously discussed a $2 million price tag for the renovations, and Crowdis said he was pleased with what ATG had to offer.
"As you can see, ATG came in considerably less," he said. "In my dealings and actions with the ATG representative, I felt as comfortable or more comfortable with the ATG rep as I did with any of the others for some varying reasons."
Crowdis provided numbers for financing the project using $160,000 left over from the original turf installation, and a $40,000 contribution from the Hoisington Rec Commission. The district currently levies six mills and, at five years, would pay $335,000 a year and have $102,000 left over. At seven mills, the payment would stay the same, and the district would have $174,950 left.
"I look at that, with the 5-year plan, knowing that would get us five years," Crowdis told the board. "We would have five years with the turf before the warranty is expired, allowing us to put money back every year for five years if we're potentially able to. That way we're able to, we would try not to finance it again."
Additional costs on the project could come for soil stabilization and disposal of the old turf and track. Board member Dean Stoskopf suggested using existing money from capital outlay and contingency funds to drop the outstanding balance to $1 million. Other board members agreed to take $200,000 from each the capital outlay and contingency funds.
"We've got enough money sitting back there," Stoskopf said. "I'd like to do more but that soil stabilization, that $100,000 there, and both of them reference that you need a 5-10 percent contingency reserve for costs. I don't think it's going to get any cheaper."
The six-lane track surface installed by ATG will be thicker than that of its competitors. Construction will likely begin after the 2022-23 school year.