Tom Hintgen/Daily Journal The FFHS varsity football complex will likely move to the soccer field area near Kennedy Secondary School.

Group eyes new football field [UPDATED]

Published 10:44am Thursday, February 9, 2012 Updated 10:54am Thursday, February 9, 2012
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Big decisions are on the horizon for the Fergus Falls School Board and taxpayers of District 544 in the next few months. An Outdoor Facility Task Force is at work to recommend a plan that would include moving the varsity football field to the site of the soccer field east of Kennedy Secondary School (KSS).

Other changes would be made near Kennedy School and also near Cleveland School and the Roosevelt Education Center.

The task force, in recent weeks, has sought input from District 544 residents for improvements to the football, tennis, soccer, track, baseball and softball outdoor facilities. The plan also includes enhancements to the on-site environmental learning area close to the wetlands, northeast of Kennedy School.

“The task force still has a ways to go before a final recommendation is offered to the school board,” said School Board Chairman Darrel Tungseth at the conclusion of Wednesday’s task force gathering at the KSS cafeteria.

The preliminary cost, yet to be finalized, is $5.1 million. The school board would need to approve the plan before a bond issue would appear on the ballot for District 544 voters.

District taxpayers currently are paying close to $500,000 on bonds that will be paid off in 2014. New bonds to handle changes in the outdoor facilities, if approved, would likely cost taxpayers close to $400,000 per year.

“The timing seems right, with the old bonds no longer on the books in 2014,” said Supt. Jerry Ness. “The decision, of course, would be up to the school board and then voters in District 544. But, at present, the task force strongly believes they can come up with a viable plan.”

Safety is a main issue regarding the varsity football field complex. The grandstand on the north side of the field has been in place for over 40 years, and is outmoded. The seating area was moved from the old fairgrounds site, which made way for the middle school (now KSS), in 1969. Safety is a concern for players using changing rooms underneath the grandstand.

The football field, if moved, would be located at an angle in the area now occupied by the Kennedy School soccer field. The varsity soccer field would be one of two new fields located near Cleveland School.

The tennis courts near Kennedy School would move northward, in the area where the current football field is located. The site of the old tennis courts would be used for additional parking to accommodate fans going to the new football complex. Green space, near the old football field site, would be used as practice fields.

Cost of new bleachers, to accommodate 2,200 football fans, is estimated at $407,000.

Changes near Kennedy School also would include two softball fields located near Friberg Avenue and moving the track to the new football field complex. An eight-lane track surface with poly base would cost about $85,000.

Two regulation-size soccer fields at Cleveland School would run north and south, with safety fences added at the complex. The soccer fields would have a sprinkler system. Cleveland’s skating rink would be moved, with possible relocation to Roosevelt Park.

A ninth grade baseball field would be built south of Roosevelt Education Center, near the levee. The outfield would be used in the offseason for youth football practices.

Factors in the $5.1 million projected cost, according to District 544 consultant RA Morton Construction Managers of St. Cloud, are earthwork, landscaping, hard surface costs, buildings, specialty items such as goal posts and track accessories, electrical work and water services, to name a few.

The Outdoor Facility Task Force will meet again at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at Kennedy Secondary School. District 544 residents are invited to attend and provide input into the overall plan.

 

 

 

Comments
  1. Pam Carlson February 9, 2012 at 1:10 pm <Link>

    When will it end? Just how much do the school and city council thinlk they can add to taxes without trouble? This needs to stop now. Stop them while we can. No more taxes.

  2. Frizzel Boscoe February 9, 2012 at 3:19 pm <Link>

    User taxes. Tax the parents of the players and put a extra $3 charge for admission to the games. When you raise enough money for the new field, then you can build one. Schools are not there for the advantage of the few who play sports. They are there to educate. Until there is money bursting from their eyeballs I would say its time to start thinking about either suspending school sports or looking to the business community for donations. How about Ottertail Power Stadium?

    Take that five million and put it into technology upgrades for the math and science classes. This is really where our kids need help. They can learn to chase a ball by themselves.

  3. Camilla Ryan February 9, 2012 at 4:48 pm <Link>

    This is typical of the mindset of our public school leadership, when the Superintendent makes the argument that since an existing bond will be paid off next year, instead of giving the taxpayers a break by reducing their taxes by the amount of the annual bond payments, instead the new facilities should be built by continuing and increasing that portion of the overall tax burden on the people of the district.

    It is demonstrative of the arrogant attitudes ,of the elitist ruling class in government and our educational system, that people’s purpose in living is to build one monument after another to the elites by using the extortionist powers of government to force workers to pay for playgrounds of a privileged few. And, it shows that the administration is contemptuous of the working people and the their actual needs.

    Can we expect the dysfunctional parents,who want to shunt off their parental duties to care for their children, to wait much longer to demand a grand water park facility in town, so the parents can push the kids out to the pool for the day, and mom and dad can be spared the task of watching out for their own? When the hockey bunch rammed through the arena money grab, they were counting on keeping the pool wannabees to hold off until after the public was on the hook to pay for the arena. Looks like the football crowd beat the pool crowd to the head of the line for the next handout.

  4. Greg Worner February 9, 2012 at 5:32 pm <Link>

    I’m confused. We love the new skating rink and use it when we are in Fergus, but that can’t possibly be paid off in 2 years, can it? I really think it would be in the District’s best interest to fund all-day kindergarten before an expensive football field that would get used maybe 10 days per year.

  5. Peter Haugen February 9, 2012 at 6:05 pm <Link>

    Another retarded waste of money. Let me guess. This will go on a referendum and fail, then our city council will deem that this is a city problem and ram it through again…

    So let me go one step further, let me guess, there isn’t enough r…oom for hockey parking so they want to make the current practice field a parking lot, then use the perfectly fine football field and make it a practice field, thus causing the need for a new football stadium.

    So since the hockey arena was a “city problem” which is why it never saw a referendum trough the school, I suppose the parking is now the city’s problem and so I’m pretty sure that this. An get pushed through the city council without another referendum.

    Time to clean house come election time.

    To the above commenter, I totally agree with you. Free All day kindegarten would be a much better use of funds for the district. It is paritally because of the cost of all day kindegarten (195.00 per month) that we decided to send our son to Rothsay school district even though we live within two blocks of the elementary school. Now our son is doing great over there to the point where we have decided that our daughter will join him next year. And just a side note: The Rothsay bus that comes from fergus falls is a pretty full bus, there are plenty of kids who are open enrolling to other districts out of our own, not only rothsay but Underwood is reaping the benifits of sending a couple of buses to fergus falls as well. Truely a sad state of affairs when parents who live in fergus falls won’t send their kids to the school that is in their own city. You would think it would be like one giant slap in the face or at least a thought of “what are we doing wrong”

    “You can’t fix Stupid” not even with duct tape

  6. Peter Haugen February 10, 2012 at 9:11 am <Link>

    Basically said, Make better use of the taxpayer money. Fund all day kindegarten, computers, math and science upgrades, textbooks, keep the teachers around from year to year instead of laying them off and having them wonder if they will have a job from year to year. There is so many better ways to spend a whole lot less money. The voters approved the remodel of the schools, they got a new arena and practice facility, Let the tax payers have a break for once instead of thinking that since one tax is about to go away we better get another. Remember that people remember these things when it comes to other referendums and all this is going to do is tick people off to the point where they will simply vote no for everything the school ever asks for which in the end, will hurt not only the district but the students as well.

  7. Jean Roen February 10, 2012 at 10:42 am <Link>

    Yes you do have to be careful what you say. I have found that most of them have a czarist attitude, and do not believe that anyone has the right to voice opinions that are not theirs, and involved with increasing the tax rolls so they can spend more of THEIR MONEY, as it does not belong to those who have no voice in the community.

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