Revamped Spoor Field soon to sport track

GALVESTON — By spring 2009, Ball High School’s track team might be able to finally compete at home.

This month, construction workers are expected to break ground on Galveston public school district’s first-ever competition track.

Ball High School has never hosted a competition track meet because it’s never had a competition track. For decades, the high school’s track team practiced on the tiny cinder track at Kermit Courville Stadium and traveled to track meets.

The long-anticipated Spoor Field renovations will include an eight-lane all-weather running track, a football field, a soccer field, new sports lighting, natural turf and chain-link fencing.

The field will also have new galvanized aluminum bleachers, on the west side of the property, that will seat 500 visitors.

The field house will have public restrooms, storage, team locker rooms, showers and coaches’ offices. The metal building on the south end of the field that now serves as a field house has no climate control, limited showers, few restrooms and its exterior is chipped and faded, Athletic Director Sandra Howell has said.

The project should be finished by August, said Arnold Proctor, the district’s assistant superintendent of business and operations.

The $4.7 million project, part of the 2003 bond issue, spiked in cost from $1.4 million five years ago. Holliday Builders constructed the district’s new girl’s softball field.

Part of the increase in cost accounted for by the $1.77 million the district spent in 2004 buying 13 homes near 41st and Avenue Q and demolishing the aging Copperfield Apartments to clear the way for the new track and field.

Then construction hit a snag when a judge ruled the district’s use of a contracting method didn’t meet the requirements of state law. In 2005, the district changed the way it contracted work, including the Spoor Field project.

But, two years ago, bond funds dedicated to athletic facilities were almost gone. And, a year ago, when the district found out the eight-lane track would extend over its property lines, the city charged the district $213,600 to buy the adjacent streets and alleyway.

The increased price is also driven by the rising cost of construction and materials, the district’s facilities director Fred Niccum has said.

According to a report from Associated General Contractors of America — a trade association for the construction industry — labor costs have increased 21 percent since 2003, when the bond election passed. Materials costs have increased 42 percent, the report states.

The new Spoor Field will meet the standards of the National Federation of High Schools and the University Interscholastic League.

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Timeline

• March 5 — Galveston public school district trustees award contract to Holliday Builders

• March to August — Construction

• Aug. 31 — Expected completion date

• July 31 — July 31, 2009 — Warranty period for the track