The Rankin County school board could take another step forward in funding a new $9.7 million football stadium for Brandon High School.

At its last meeting, the board approved hiring a firm to look at refinancing the district's debt to shore up more money to put toward the project. The board will decide whether to continue moving forward at Wednesday's meeting.

Brandon High School football players currently play at the field at Brandon Middle School, which school members advocating for the new stadium say is unsafe and too small. They cite a lack of space, structural and parking issues as some of the problems with the current stadium.

Board President Grumpy Farmer said Rankin's athletic facilities fall behind others in the state.

"That's why we're looking at this money," Farmer said. "We want our kids to be proud of what they have and the facilities to be safe."

A call to Brandon High School principal Buddy Bailey was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

The district began looking at several projects last year when it considered making improvements to the existing field at Brandon Middle School, which would have cost around $5 million. They decided against it, and went forward with other projects funded by a three mill note, including athletic facility upgrades at Florence and Northwest Rankin High Schools and new agriculture buildings at McLaurin and Puckett High Schools.

After going through with the other projects – which ranged from $600,000 spent on the Richland High School football stadium to $1 million spent on the Northwest Rankin High School football field and track – the district had $4 million left over for the new football stadium at Brandon and is now trying to determine the best way to get the rest of the funding.

When asked about the stadium project, Vice President Ann Sturdivant said no final decision or vote has been made on where the funds will be spent.

While no vote has been taken yet, some preliminary work such as soil borings has been done on the site where the field would be.

"We're hoping to get the ball rolling and get it going pretty quick," Farmer said.

 

Source:http://www.clarionledger.com/

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