School board to tackle softball field, construction overruns today
Today at noon, the Lincoln Parish School Board is set to take final action on multiple items related to the bond- funded construction project packages voters passed in April.
A final vote is expected on the proposal to purchase land from the city of Ruston on South Farmerville Street to construct a new home field for the Ruston High softball team, rather than the program’s old location near Glen View Elementary on Bittersweet Avenue.
The board will also vote on committing a potential $4.3 million in additional funding to offset cost overruns in the capital projects on tap from April elections in the Ruston and Choudrant school zones.
Today’s meeting convenes at noon at Ruston High School.
When the board was campaigning for a $17.5 million bond proposal in the Ruston district this spring, officials said the plan for RHS softball was to spend about $3.5 million rehabilitating and adding onto the existing Bittersweet Avenue field where the team used to play, turning that site into the team’s new home.
The softball team currently plays on a Ruston Sports Complex field owned by the city.
Now, officials say they’ve discovered their plans for the updated facility couldn’t be completed as designed at Bittersweet without moving the field further back into the property.
And after having the site’s topography studied, they say the dirt and drainage work needed for the project would be significantly more expensive.
Instead, the city Board of Aldermen has introduced — though not yet passed — an ordinance to sell 14.45 acres of land at the Sports Complex, the former site of the Ruston Girls Softball Association fields, to the school board for $150,000.
Schools Superintendent Ricky Durrett said even with the land purchase, building a new facility at the Sports Complex site would be cheaper than doing the same at Bittersweet, and of the two locations, Ruston High prefers the new option.
“In the end, it made sense for us to be there, as long as it wasn’t costing us more money,” Durrett said. “It gets you closer to baseball, softball, tennis all in one place.”
The formerly $3.5 million softball project is now estimated to cost nearly $6.2 million, according to the first round of pricing Clark Contractors provided to school district leaders last week.
Clark Contractors was chosen through the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) process to complete six of the largest RHS and Ruston Junior High projects from April’s bond package.
Though the current pricing isn’t yet final, for now those projects are expected to run nearly $18.8 million in total.
The board has about $15.77 million in proceeds left from the Ruston bond sale. That’s why the administration has recommended up to $3.8 million of existing capital project funds be dedicated to fill the gap as needed.
Those funds would only be used after the bond money dries up, likely in the 2025-26 fiscal year, and the full amount may not be required.
It’s a similar situation in Choudrant, where the high school is set to get a new multi-purpose room and the elementary school is expecting a new classroom wing.
Estimated at $2 million during campaign season, that bond sale actually brought in nearly $2.2 million. But even so, as construction prices continue rising, officials are expecting the cost of those projects to once again outpace those funds.
That package hasn’t yet been bid out to a contractor, so costs are a little less clear than the Ruston projects. But the board is expected to vote on dedicating $500,000 from the same source as the $3.8 million for Ruston to make up any funding gaps.
