March 29, 2024

School board approves $87K bleachers

Outdoor seating area to be constructed at Berg’s football, track field

Bleachers will be installed near the new football and track field at Berg Middle School.

On Monday, the Newton Community School District Board of Education voted unanimously in favor of an $87,825 bid by TownsEnd Co. to construct and install the outdoor seating equipment.

NCSD Maintenance Supervisor Jack Suttek presented the school board with two quotes from the same vendor, one of which was a higher bid of $97,850 and included a different option for design. Suttek recommended the cheaper, first option, an angle frame model instead of the leg truss.

Admittedly, the second option would be easier for cleaning under the bleachers, Suttek said. At first, he thought that more open area might make a good spot to store equipment and other things. However, Suttek believed the spot would devolve into a place to store “eye sore stuff.”

“The time it’s going to take to clean under them to payback, I wouldn’t be able to guess what it would be — (maybe) 50 years?” Suttek said. “So it’s not worth the extra money to give us a little bit of cleanup comfort, so to speak.”

Berg’s new bleachers are expected to fit up to 300 people per side.

The old bleachers used by the middle school were portable that have been moved “multiple, multiple times,” several of which probably would not make the move again, Suttek said. Once installed, the differences will be quite noticeable. Suttek estimated hundreds more people can now be seated.

School board member Donna Cook asked if the old bleachers were unsafe and needed to be removed. Suttek affirmed the old bleachers are still safe, but many will likely be ridded of when the new models are installed on school grounds.

Superintendent Bob Callaghan said the new style of bleachers are permanent, similar to the ones installed at the softball complex. Also, the bleachers would be financed using the Berg Middle School Construction Fund dollars, he said.

Softball retainage fees

Contractors of the Newton school district’s softball complex project will receive their retainage fees, school board members decided Monday.

After Suttek spoke with the superintendent of the softball complex project, he was informed crews finished the last bit of grinding a while back. Upon further inspection of the site, it meets Suttek’s standards and approval. As such, he recommended the school board release the $23,525.64 in retainage fees.

“There’s nothing left out there that needs to be done,” Suttek said.

Update on the softball complex parking lot

Construction of the parking lot across the street from the softball complex is completed, but there are still a few smaller details that need to be worked out. Suttek said.

Adjacent soccer fields still need minor landscaping and seeding work, for instance. Crews must also return to the site to repaint some sections of the parking lot. Suttek said those areas had already been painted but had been spoiled by inclement weather.

“They rolled the dice and they lost,” he said. “Other than that we’re good to go.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com