Progress Being Made On Athletic Complex Construction

A long winter and spring rains have slowed work on the Glenwood Athletic Complex, but the $6 million project remains on schedule, according to Glenwood Superintendent Devin Embray.

Construction crews broke ground on the project to overhaul the former athletic complex last fall. When completed, the complex will include a new running track, new home bleachers, expanded visitor bleachers, a new press box and a new field house featuring locker rooms, restrooms, and a concession stand. The site will also add a new entry gate with a pick up and drop off driveway and a artificial playing surface for the football field to replace the grass playing surface.

Embray said the project is likely a couple weeks behind schedule but the site has dried nicely following winter and recent rain. Genesis Contracting, who the district secured in November as the primary contractor on the athletic complex, will begin working six day weeks as the weather warms up.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Embray said. “I think they’re really going to start rocking and rolling on it and moving fast.”

Much of the site’s dirt work was completed in the fall. Quick work by crews this spring has the elevator shaft in, the grandstand and press box footings poured and a large portion of work completed on the main structure of the field house – dubbed the “Gateway Building” that will serve as the locker rooms, concession stands and restroom facilities on the north end of the field. Work on the roof of the field house building has also begun. The natural grass surface on the football field has also been peeled and is being prepped and graded for installation of the artificial playing surface.

Embray said the district is in the process of ordering the turf from Denison-based Midwest FieldTurf. The new playing surface will be a polyethylene blend of fibers that is backfilled with layers of silica sand and crumb rubber and meant to replicate real grass, but more resilient.

The Glenwood Booster Club spearheaded a private fundraising campaign to raise the $500,000 to fit the bill for the field turf portion of the project.

The site has been without electricity, but Embray anticipates that issue being resolved before the start of the summer baseball and softball seasons.

The Glenwood Community School District’s track programs have not been able to use the facility during the spring.
Funding for the Glenwood Athletic Complex is coming out of the district’s voter approved 10-year, Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) and the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) monies it receives through the one-cent sales tax levy.

The project is scheduled to be substantially completed by mid-September.