S.R. Knutson Field may soon add about 600 seats as Hutchinson Public Schools seeks to update its grandstand built in the mid-1980s.
"There has been a lot of movement because of settling over the years in different places," said Hutchinson Public Schools director of buildings and grounds Brian Mohr. "And it is not handicap accessible the way it should be. ... Some of our elderly spectators also have a hard time going up the steps without handrails."
The School Board unanimously agreed to have Mohr seek bids for stadium improvements at its Monday evening meeting. Work will include foundations and footing for a replacement grandstand on the home side, and a storage building that will be beneath the grandstand. It will also include an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant path to the visitor's side, and a monolithic concrete slab on the visitor's side for bleachers. Bids will be opened April 21.
"From what I understand, (this is) the first time in Hutchinson school history we'll have an actual grandstand on the visitor's side," Mohr told the School Board.
The bids will not be for the grandstand. It will be purchased with another contract.
The current grandstand has about 1,400 seats. The new grandstand is expected to have 1,750. The bleachers on the visitor side would add another 300.
"This has been on our 10-year facility plan," said Superintendent Daron VanderHeiden.
Mohr said funds will come from two sources. The first is a reserve account in which the school saves capital improvement dollars from the state in order to tackle larger maintenance and building projects. The other funding source is long-term facility maintenance revenue, which the state contributes to with a 50/50 match from local tax dollars.
"That was targeted to help schools get out of some of the backlog of maintenance they have," Mohr said.
He believes this summer will be the best time to tackle the project, as work on the high school is finished and in the future administrators will be keeping track of work on other buildings.
