The location where Seymour High School’s new $2 million soccer fields will be laid out is nothing but a construction site right now.
Mountains of dirt and heavy earth moving equipment are in place and work is continuing on the underground drainage system that will keep the fields dry and playable even after heavy rains.
“The contractor (King Trucking and Excavating in Seymour) has mobilized and much work is happening behind the scenes to ready the materials to be delivered on site,” said project manager Jamie Lake with Kovert Hawkins Architects in Jeffersonville. “This project is almost entirely a site work project, so you won’t see a massive building coming out of the ground.”
Come spring, the dirt base will be covered in bright green artificial turf, making Seymour’s varsity soccer field one of the few high school turfed fields dedicated for soccer in the state. A purple and white Seymour Owls logo will be featured in the middle of the field for branding and identity, said athletic director Brandon Harpe.
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The new soccer stadium is being built between the school’s softball and baseball diamonds to the west of the main campus. The project includes the main field, a practice field, a new parking lot, sports lighting, security fencing, a press box and bleachers and a scoreboard.
Funding for the projects is coming from general obligation bonds and capital projects funds.
“The work is continuing nicely and is still on time and in budget,” Lake said.
The facility is set to open for the 2016-17 season. Seymour has both boys and girls soccer teams and the new fields will allow the school to host large tournaments, including sectionals, regionals and even semi-state.
This will be the first time soccer has been played on-campus. Since the boy’s program began in the early ’90s, games have been played at Freeman Field Athletic Complex. Girls soccer started in 1996.
Concerns with the safety of SHS players traveling to and from the field on their own and issues with drainage and handicapped accessibility at C.B. Hess Memorial Field are what led to the decision to create the new soccer stadium.
Trinity Lutheran High School is the only other high school in Jackson County to offer soccer.
Another major project currently underway is the addition of a new $1.5 million media center to Cortland Elementary School.
With around 150 students, Cortland is the district’s smallest school.
The 6,509-square-foot addition is going on the northwest side of the building, just past the main office area.
“All site work has been completed, the concrete slab has been poured, all utilities have been installed, and walls are going up,” Lake said. “The project is almost ready for structural steel and the roof.”
The addition will replace the school’s outdated open-concept library, which in today’s learning environment creates functional and safety issues, school officials have said.
One area of the media center will include risers for children to sit on while being read to, a study room, a large conference room, an office and a workroom. The media center also will be set up to double as a community center for meetings or after-school activities.
The addition is scheduled to be open for use in the fall of 2016.
Lake said construction is ahead of schedule and under budget.
“The next big steps are to complete the building shell so that all interior work can occur over the winter,” he added.