FORKS — The Quillayute Valley School Board will ask residents which $1.25 million project should be done first: a new artificial turf field or a new stadium.
Funding is available for one of the projects to be done next year.
The district’s Spartan Stadium and Field Replacement Project includes plans to replace both, but the Quillayute Valley School District must decide which comes first or how to fund both without asking for a tax increase.
“There are safety issues with both,” said Superintendent Diana Reaume.
The district plans a community meeting to collect ideas for priorities and funding at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Forks High School library, 261 Spartan Ave.
Those who cannot attend the meeting can fill out response forms, which are available at the district office, 411 Spartan Ave.
A survey will be posted on the district website at www.qvschools.org by the end of the day today, Reaume said.
Spartan Stadium, built in 1960 by the Forks Lions Club, is located behind the high school at 261 S. Spartan Ave.
The stadium is heavily used for football and soccer in the fall, for track and field events in the spring and by the youth baseball league during the summer.
The stadium’s cement base is crumbling, its roof is rusting and flaking, and some of the wooden support beams are rotting, district officials said.
The estimated cost for a basic replacement stadium without concessions or restrooms is $850,000, Reaume said.
The addition of concessions and restrooms would raise that cost to $1.25 million, she said.
Reaume said the current stadium’s restrooms are in poor condition and are used only when the high school is closed and its restrooms are unavailable.
The snack shack in the school is used during high school games, she said.
While the past two years of drought have been relatively good for the field, in a typical rainy year, it becomes a muddy mess, said Bill Henderson, district maintenance supervisor, who is in charge of maintaining the playfield and track.
The sidelines have to be covered by thick mats to keep players and coaches out of standing muddy water, and when it dries out in the summer, the mud hardens into holes and ridges, Henderson said.
Teams do not practice on the field so as to keep damage to a minimum, he said. They use other fields for practices.
Henderson said when the field was built in 1960, it was designed with a high crown running down the center to encourage rain to run off the playing field.
That crown’s height was reduced during a past renovation of the field, but it is still very high, and the slope on each side creates difficulty for players, he said.
The estimate for the replacement of the field, plus resurfacing of the existing track, is $1.25 million.
In 2014, the Quillayute Valley School Board earmarked $1 million in funds for the two projects.
In May of that year, the district applied for a grant in collaboration with the city of Forks through the state Recreation Conversation Office.
Last week, the school district was notified the city was awarded a $250,000 state Youth Athletic Facilities grant to help replace the field, Reaume said.
The state grant money can be used only for field replacement or it must be returned to the state, she said.
That would make it difficult for the district and city to apply for future grants, she added.
Reaume said if the grant is accepted by the city and district, field construction would begin in May 2016 and would be completed before the 2016 football season.
The district could wait until 2016, then apply to the state for a $500,000 grant to help with the stadium, but the district must already have matching funds to qualify, she said.
The district also identified a need for a new scoreboard, which is approaching the end of its useful life, she said.
For more information or to provide assistance, phone Reaume at 360-374-6262.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
