Architects Sought for Armstrong River Hawks Stadium

by Jonathan Weaver

With Armstrong Junior/Senior High School built and State construction reimbursements finally coming in, Armstrong School District board directors now hope to re-focus on building a new sports stadium.

In November, school directors approved to solicit for architectural services to complete the River Hawks athletic complex, as recommended last week by Financial Director Sam Kirk.

“When the (Armstrong Junior/Senior High) school plan was originally done, there was an athletic complex proposed at that time. Half of that athletic complex has been completed (by way of tennis courts and softball and baseball fields),” Kirk said. “It went out for bid almost two years ago now, and it came back very high to do the whole (complex).”

In August 2014, L.R. Kimball Project Manager Brian Hayes presented school board members with $9.1-$10.5 million cost estimates for the athletic complex at their first open caucus session of the 2014-15 fiscal year.

A total $9.1 million bid was calculated for the 3,500-seat football stadium alone from the five lowest bids opened in June 2014. Low bidders included $7.2 million for general contracting through L.S. Fiore of Altoona (Blair County), $674,000 in plumbing with McRandal Company of Blawnox (Allegheny County) and $239,000 through Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning through D&G Mechanical of West Middlesex (Mercer County).

“Those bids absolutely are high -we’re trying to explain to ourselves why they are,” Hayes said at the time. “I think it’s a number of various conditions and circumstances surrounding the project.”

Visiting bleachers would have cost an additional estimated- $300,000 and the ideal running track for around the competition football/soccer field would have cost about $92,000.

Kirk said last night, services for the ‘scaled-down’ version of the stadium would be solicited – which include the six-lane track and fieldhouse full of concession stands and restrooms - but an architect would not be appointed until at least January.

In January 2015, Engineer Brian Hayes also proposed at least a dozen cutbacks to the new $10 million athletic complex – including eliminating the visitor grandstands (thereby also reducing the bathroom and concession facilities) constructing a smaller field house with less locker rooms and considering only a six-lane track and four tennis courts instead of six in new bids – to entice more competitive bids when the district is ready for construction.

At that time, it was thought stadium ‘scale downs’ might reduce Armstrong’s eligibility to host regional tournaments, but would not limit any team athletics.

School Superintendent Chris DeVivo approved of Kirk’s recommendation.

“I think it would be smart to take a walk and see,” DeVivo said at last month’s open caucus session.

In August, Kirk said he hoped to build the stadium (which would include a track and also be home to the River Hawks soccer teams) for about $5 million.

In November, Kirk said Armstrong School District will receive more than $1.5 million in reimbursable PlanCon funds from the State following completed construction projects – including at Lenape Elementary, West Hills Primary and West Hills Intermediate.

“Our recommendation for that would be since we’ve ‘survived’ throughout the years without that money, to take those funds and put it back into our capital improvement construction funds to use for future capital projects,” Kirk said.

An estimated-$2.8 million in reimbursement will also be received from the State this Winter after a PlanCon project financing for the Armstrong Junior/Senior High School was approved. Those reimbursements will also be used toward future construction projects.

“What moving forward with that means is, we’re going to see about $530,000 annually in additional revenue from those payments we’re making on the new high school,” Kirk explained.

With the revised timeline, officials hope to open the stadium for the Fall sports season.

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