Humble ISD is in negotiations with their contractor, Facilities Sources, over the terms of the contract to renovate the baseball and softball facilities at Turner Stadium.

Humble ISD Athletic Director, Troy Kite, anticipates the contract terms will be settled by early in the week of Sept. 17. He said the estimated budget for both the baseball and softball renovations is approximately $4.4 million.

The softball renovation plan is essentially a complete rebuild, Kite said.

“We’ll basically be tearing down and building back up,” Kite said. “It will be completely new. New dugouts, backstops, netting, press box, electrical, restrooms.”

Currently, Kite said the softball field uses temporary bleachers. The renovation will result in new permanent bleachers to hold about 565 people.

The baseball field’s dugout will be renovated and painted. Baseball will also be getting new netting, concessions, restrooms, as well as new bleachers with a capacity for 700-plus people.

The district’s goal is to have the renovations complete before baseball and softball season starts in early 2019.

The single biggest concern, Kite said, are the bleachers. There is a lot of concrete work necessary to perform underneath bleachers. The concrete below the current baseball bleachers is four decades old and not suitable to serve as a foundation for new bleachers, so it must be replaced. Additionally, the process of getting and installing the bleachers can take several weeks.

“It’s a critical stage and we’re determined to get this done,” Kite said.

Humble ISD is also in the process of installing field turf on the Turner Stadium baseball and softball fields, which will prevent rain-out games. Kite explained that previously, when a rain event occurred, the rain-saturated grass fields were unusable until they returned to normal.

“We’re trying to do what we’ve already done at Turner for soccer and football — to make this a district facility where we won’t lose games to rain-outs,” Kite said. “In soccer, we play at campuses on the grass fields, but when it rains, we move to Turner in order to not miss games. For baseball and softball, we have no place to move them.”

Kite anticipates the field turf may be especially appreciated during playoffs.

“It pours that time of year in April, and we’re either traveling, or having to pay to play at Crosby’s softball facility,” Kite said. “This will let us play those games at home.”

The field turf at Turner is part of the larger initiative to install field turf at all district high schools’ football fields as well, which was recently completed in time for football season.

The field turf project, as well as the renovations at the Turner Stadium baseball and softball fields, were both projects included in the district’s 2018 bond referendum approved by voters in May.

 

Source: houstonchronicle.com

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