FAYETTEVILLE — Students at Fayetteville High School will return to gleaming new facilities, including some athletic facilities, when school starts Aug. 20.
There will be a new indoor practice facility, new turf on Harmon Field and a new district track south of Ramay Junior High School. A new tennis complex should be completed around new courts adjacent to Asbell Elementary School.
A building that once housed the gymnasium at the old Boys & Girls Club on Clinton Drive was torn down this week as part of constructing the new Bulldog Athletic and Recreation Center.
The new center also includes the Fahring Building, which once was the home of the Boys & Girls Club swimming pool.
The club moved to a new building on Rupple Road, south of Wedington Drive, in 2003. Ownership of its former home reverted to the Fayetteville School District. The old swimming pool was filled in and the building turned into an indoor practice facility. The old gym building was also used for indoor practices.
Renovation to the Fahring Building will include a new roof, locker rooms and coaches offices, according to a report to the Fayetteville School Board by Wes Burgess, an architect with Crafton, Tull, Sparks architecture and engineering firm. A new practice facility will replace the old gym with an area one-half the size of a football field. It can also be used as a practice facility for the soccer team.
The guaranteed maximum price for the complex is $4.4 million, according to construction documents from Nabholz Construction Services.
By The Numbers
New Athletic Facilities
The Fayetteville High School transformation includes significant work on athletic facilities on and off campus.
New tennis complex adjacent to Asbell Elementary School: $1.23 million
Bulldog Athletic and Recreation Complex: $4.4 million
Harmon Field turf : $682,000
District track: $1.4 million
Source: Staff Report
The project is financed by second-lien bonds the district sold several months ago. Second-lien bonds are a popular source for school districts to generate building money. The bonds don’t require voter approval. They are like a second mortgage and are attached to a district’s outstanding general obligation bonds.
“When the ninth grade is moved over to the high school, we’ll have greater needs for multipurpose spaces,” said Barry Gebhart, athletic director at the high school.
Besides baseball and soccer offered at the high school, there will be two football teams on the campus when freshmen move in 2015, Gebhart said.
“This is really about maximizing our space,” he said.
The first phase of the athletic complex, the Fahring building, is scheduled for completion in mid-August. The rest of the work will be done by Jan. 1, said David Tate, the district’s director of physical plant services.
Work to lay new turf at Harmon Field is to be completed by July 29, Gebhart said. The old turf carpet — with a lifespan of 10 years — was put on the field 12 years ago, he said.
“It had to be redone,” he said.
The new district track, south of Ramay Junior High School, is also under way. The School Board authorized site work and construction of the track base and surface for $752,027. Phil Jones, project executive with Nabholz, said a package for bleachers and other items will go to the School Board next week for approval.
The eight new tennis courts have been in use since last spring. Gebhart said the locker room is under construction to complete the tennis complex. The tennis courts were moved from the high school campus to Asbell as part of the construction project.