School Board Approves Bid, Timeline for Memorial Field Renovations

This story has been updated to correct board approval dates, reflecting action taken at a special meeting on March 26.

State College Area School Board voted at a special meeting Tuesday to move forward with a bid proposal for the final phase of Memorial Field renovations that will complete the project faster and at less cost, but that would close the venue for most or all of the fall 2019 sports season.

With the shorter timeline, some 2019 fall high school sports, including varsity football, will play home games at the new North Field on the high school campus, according to discussions at the board’s two regular meetings earlier in March. The South Track field could also be used for some fall teams other than football. Spring 2020 sports will use the South Track field and North Field as well.

Construction will begin in the spring and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2020.

Also under consideration is a ‘hybrid schedule,’ which would pause construction for the month of October to allow teams to play some of their bigger games, such as football’s Homecoming and Senior Night, at Memorial Field, which would have reduced capacity during that time. The board is expected to decide in April whether to move forward with the hybrid schedule.

An alternate bid proposal, which would have stopped construction for fall 2019 and fall 2020 with project completion in the summer of 2021, was rejected.

Plans for phase 2 of the renovations were approved by the board last year but put on hold while the district focused on completing other projects. Those plans include new home-side bleachers with additional seating, locker room facilities constructed under the home seating, restrooms, pedestrian plazas and concessions. 

The bid approved on Tuesday also includes a classroom space in the basement of the current Nittany Avenue Building, which is being demolished as part of the project.

Bids were received in February, with LS Fiore Construction the low bidder at $11,656,900 for the base bid with the shorter timeline. The alternate bid for a longer timeline came in at $12,245,600.

Both timelines had projected soft cost budgets of $2,505,855. The shorter timeline, meanwhile, will require improvements to the North Field including addition of spectator seating, a scoreboard, removable football goal posts and a press box.

In a separate vote on Tuesday, the board approved the purchase of three towable bleacher units with a capacity of 300 seats each for a total cost of $154,000. The bleachers can be used at the North Field or at Memorial Field during the October games and can be repurposed for other uses in the future. Director of Physical Plant Ed Poprik said that a 500-seat bleacher unit which is being replaced at Memorial Field will be moved to the North Field, where it will be a more permanent installation.

‘This allows us the flexibility to play all the home games as scheduled in State College, either on our campus in total or  considering the hybrid option,’ Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said. ‘But we need the capacity whether we play all the game on our North Field or whether it’s a combo of some other option.’

If the board goes with the ‘hybrid schedule,’ allowing Memorial Field to be used for games in the month of October, temporary work would be needed to restore the field for play, relocate lights and the scoreboard and have a temporary public address system and press box. The home-side bleachers also would be an off-limits construction zone.

In all, with construction costs, soft costs, North Field improvements and temporary work included, the shorter timeline with the hybrid schedule is expected to have a total cost of about $14.5 million, about $500,000 less than the longer timeline, which including soft costs is $15 million.

According to a memo from administrators to the board, the district has so far raised $600,000 in donation commitments for naming opportunities at the renovated Memorial Field. A formal capital campaign will be announced in the near future.

Poprik said that with the hybrid schedule, Memorial Field would not be available for practices, but in addition to October football games, it could also be used for two soccer games and a field hockey game that month.

Several board members expressed concerns that if weather impacts construction, pausing work in October would further delay the project and potentially push it into the early part of the fall 2020 season.

‘With that October pause, we feel it can be accommodated in the big picture but it no doubt is an impact to the project,’ said Tim Jones, of Massaro Construction Management. ‘We still will be able to do some construction on the home side during the non-game days. But it does have an impact.’

Board President Amber Concepcion said last week that she wants to fully understand what the experience would be like for October games at the field and be able to communicate that clearly with athletes, families and employees.

Board member Scott Fozard said at that meeting that he would like those in the community who have expressed a desire to play at Memorial Field in October to give their feedback with the knowledge that it will not be the same experience they’ve had in the past.

‘One of the main reasons we’re going down this path is, correctly, the concern the community has voiced to be able to have those games and that experience at Memorial Field,’ he said. ‘I would be very curious to find out what those feelings will be knowing we may have an option that permits that experience, but that it will be significantly different than any experience that they’re having now or will have in the future. If the community looked at those options, would playing on a field that is still Memorial Field in the middle of a construction project still be as desirable as was originally intended? If the answer is yes, that’s still very good information for me to use in my decision, but I don’t know if that answer would be yes or not.’

O’Donnell said there will be outreach to some affected groups, including the football program and marching band.

Poprik also stressed that while there is risk with having people in any construction area, he does not expect safety to be a problem if Memorial Field is opened for some games in October. He added that code officials would first have to give approval for occupancy.

‘The risk we have at the high school project where we have 2,000 kids in the construction zone is multiple times bigger than we’re talking about at Memorial Field. I would never present a situation where we felt we were putting kids in an unsafe situation,’ he said. ‘If it’s not safe we’re not going to do it, but there is risk.’