GCSD Activities Complex Still A Work In Progress

More than 15 months after breaking ground and six months after hosting its first sporting event, the Glenwood Community School District Activities Complex is still not completed.

At the February GCSD Board of Education monthly meeting, the board unanimously approved fence work at the softball and baseball fields at the complex at a cost of $70,000.

But that’s not the only work remaining on the complex that began in earnest in December of 2018.

Glenwood Superintendent Devin Embray said the complex remains an occasionally frustrating work in progress.

“I was optimistic we’d be done with all this by now but part of the realist in me knew we’d probably not get it done by (this) winter,” Embray said. “We’ve just been waiting for good days. It’s a lot of concrete work, and us not being happy with some of it – we’re having some of it busted out and replaced – so we’re waiting on that.”

The list of incomplete and under-construction projects and areas that need attention and finishing work as the weather warms is a long one.

The stadium elevator is still not operational. The softball dugout is still under construction. A new capping layer is planned for the retaining wall along the Sivers Road culvert. The visitors side bleacher expansion was ordered a year ago but has yet to be installed and may not be completed until May. Concrete still needs to be poured behind the baseball bleachers, around the track and along the stadium drive and parking turnaround.

Throughout the project, cost overruns and change orders have caused the complex’s cost to swell by $200,000, bringing the final price tag to just over $7 million.

The budget overages have forced the district to delay the installation of new scoreboards for baseball and softball. The cost of the boards was donated anonymously but installation, estimated by Embray to cost nearly $20,000 each, will have to wait.

Despite the delays and the ballooned budget, Embray said, the wait will be worth it.

“We think the changes made were important to the project and to finish off the project correctly,” Embray said.

Part of the price overruns are a result of last spring’s rain and flooding which caused issues with the complex’s water table. The district has appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the hope of recouping nearly $300,000 in overage costs related to that issue that slowed construction and required additional site work last spring and summer.

FEMA has already compensated the district for flooding damage to drainage inlets in the high school parking lot.
When asked if he expects the remaining work at the athletic complex to be completed this spring, Embray said “absolutely it will be done this spring.”

He went on to say he expects the bulk of the work to be completed early this spring, but perhaps not entirely complete before the end of the high school track season.

“I’m learning to be more patient in what goes on,” Embray said. “Even though its not being utilized right now and we don’t NEED it right now, we want to make sure this isn’t a major construction site for track season.”

Glenwood will host track and field and soccer during the remaining construction.