CURRENT UP TO DATE INFO on the NEW Multi Purpose Gym , Baseball and Softball Fields BOND Projects.

[Chadalac05]

12 minutes ago, Pack007 said:

It’s going to take them ten years to finish anything. Can’t even put the 2001 title sign back up. Why are people coming to look at and then leaving? That’s crazy 

Idk the specifics but there has to be a reason. I dont think companies would just turn down money making opportunities. In my experience with quoting jobs. The only way i wouldnt do the job is if it wasnt cost efficient for myself or if the customer had unrealistic expectations of what my services should be. Maybe the companies are just turning down money but judging by how other things are handled around here. I would put money on it being a “we want you to do this but” situation. Like i said idk the details just a guess based on our track record.

[Pack007]

The whole LISD is embarrassing. Tired of all of them.....if i can be honest. I know the coaches watching this place like a hawk 

[PackAttack]

46 minutes ago, Pack007 said:

It’s going to take them ten years to finish anything. Can’t even put the 2001 title sign back up. Why are people coming to look at and then leaving? That’s crazy 

Well, in defense of the school they have been trying to get the sign fixed since before the season began.  I don't know what underlying issues exist, just know the effort has been made for the past 4 months.

[PackAttack]

29 minutes ago, Pack007 said:

The whole LISD is embarrassing. Tired of all of them.....if i can be honest. I know the coaches watching this play like a hawk 

Watching this??  Why?  We are harmless and unimportant. 😉

[Pack007]

7 hours ago, PackAttack said:

Watching this??  Why?  We are harmless and unimportant. 😉

I did nothing PA. I’m always going to blame Chad lol

[Chadalac05]

2 minutes ago, Pack007 said:

I did nothing PA. I’m always going to blame Chad lol

Lol thats fine

[Lost Panther]

On 11/20/2019 at 11:51 AM, Pack007 said:

The whole LISD is embarrassing. Tired of all of them.....if i can be honest. I know the coaches watching this place like a hawk 

   Its very embarrassing,now they spend 1 million on cyber technology.guess we can get the money from the 6th grade wing at middle school.remember folks who is on

the school board,uh no one with the exception of Henderson that graduated at LHS!

 

[PackAttack]

Project for the new GYM behind the scoreboard has been in full swing for the past couple of weeks.  Dirt work and tree removal and in general a great deal of ground work to be done.  It has started, you can't really see anything, they have barricades everywhere now.  Looking forward to the end results.

[PackAttack]

The dirt and tractors are churning the dirt.

 

[Pack007]

Are we ever going to put the title sign back up?  Get chad to do it if you can’t find anyone. Add a little flavor to it Chad! 

[PackAttack]

Honestly, it probably will not be a priority now that the football season is over. It will be repaired at some point.

[Chadalac05]

5 hours ago, Pack007 said:

Are we ever going to put the title sign back up?  Get chad to do it if you can’t find anyone. Add a little flavor to it Chad! 

I am very talented. Will probably just wait so i can do 2001,2020 at the same time

[Hitman2]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 11:38 PM, Lost Panther said:

   Its very embarrassing,now they spend 1 million on cyber technology.guess we can get the money from the 6th grade wing at middle school.remember folks who is on

the school board,uh no one with the exception of Henderson that graduated at LHS!

 

If I am not mistaken Andra Self also graduated from LHS!

[PackAttack]

1 hour ago, Hitman2 said:

If I am not mistaken Andra Self also graduated from LHS!

So is Kristi Gay.  There are 3 LHS graduates on our school board.  Hall Henderson and Andra Self.  Don Muhlbach has been here for 34 years, his son Don Jr.  played for the Pack in 1998 and is still with the Detroit Lions. So 4 of the 7 have been in Lufkin a very long time.

[PackAttack]

The weather has slowed down the construction a bit.  Dirt work and foundation preparations are still in progress.  New driveway has been poured and completed on the east side of the project or soccer field side.    At some point this new driveway will be extended and connect with the old Junior High East Road that exits on Farm Road 841.  I went to a soccer game and walked over close to the construction and there has been a lot of work done.  The Multi Purpose Gym and offices project is going to be a huge complex.  Can't wait to see the metal supports and walls going up in the next few weeks.

Check out the Aerial view.  You can see where a baseball field was previously in use at some point in the past and is generally where the new Baseball field  will be located.

 

 

 

[PackAttack]

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3322709,-94.6936652,2225m/data=!3m1!1e3

Zoom in and look at the Google Map, the old Junior high East Road.  You can also see the old baseball field . The new field will be turned at 180 degrees. Home plate with be SE facing NW.

 

[PackAttack]

Always a good sign when they start tying steel. Concrete time Walls next. #LP #movingup #AIATT pic.twitter.com/03vQkVx1iw

— Todd Quick (@CoachQuick1) January 31, 2020

 

Things are starting to come together over there.  Excited to see the progress. Lots of pine tree removed toward the creek.

[PackAttack]

Lufkin High School’s new multipurpose facility should be finished in 12 to 16 months depending on the weather, according to Lufkin High School Principal Brandon Boyd.

The access road behind the LHS football practice fields and tennis courts has been shut down since December for construction access to the new Multi Purpose Gym being built directly behind the Abe Martin Stadium scoreboard. Crews have already completed a new parking lot and driveway on the East side where the materials to build the facility are handled and stored.

The contractors have leveled and completed the dirt work for the foundation, steel is about to go into the ground for the concrete to be poured. Next month we should be able to see some walls going up.

The Multi Purpose will house  the NEW Panther gymnasium that will be home to the LHS basketball and volleyball teams, who have been playing at the old Panther Gymnasium on the Lufkin Middle School campus for the past three decades. The new facility will hold around 2,000 people, giving the high school more room for students and staff to watch a game or performance.

The Multi Purpose will have two courts, the Main Panther court, there you will be able to watch one game and then walk through to another game on court #2, which will also have seating and be used for team practices and tournaments.

There will be complete office space for basketball and volleyball coaching, with large locker/dressing rooms that can also be used during the football season for visiting teams.

The new Panther Multi Purpose facility will have state-of-the-art equipment and will be one of the most modern athletic facilities around East Texas, one of the nicest gymnasiums in East Texas.

The new baseball and softball fields will start this Spring and will be completely artifical turf with LED lighting, The two fields will be located close together, across the creek,  behind the new multi purpose gym, allowing for a much better viewing experience than they have had at Morris Frank Park.  

[Pack007]

It sounds nice. I was hoping they could finish everything during this coming football season. But a year isn’t bad i guess. I wish they had a virtual tour on the site or something where you could see everything that’s being described. The money we could make on tournaments and playoff games instead of the teams choosing AC, could be beneficial in the long run i guess....🤷🏽‍♂️

[PackAttack]

Was thinking about the new projects going on out at Lufkin High this morning.  The school shut down has probably helped advanced the time table for completion a bit or maybe it helped make up for lost time due to weather.   Have not been out there in several days.  Last time was just to check out the the new scoreboard sign and get a picture of that.    

You can see from the Student parking lot the foundation and concrete work is progressing very well for the gym.  They are getting close to completing that phase.   Once the concrete is in place and cured well, then the walls and roof will begin to be installed and once that is done, things will start to move more quickly.  They poured a new driveway very early in the project that will allow materials to be brought in and unloaded easily right by the building.  Once the walls and roof are in place, then there will be greater progress to see.  From the loop side by the practice fields,  you can see a ton of dirt being moved around and removed, getting ready to build the new Baseball and Softball complex and adding more courts to the Tennis Complex.   The slow process of the ground , drainage and foundation work is the most tedious of all at the beginning of any project.  Once the dirt work, base and drainage system is completed, the new fields will going in fairly quick with new artificial turf .  The fencing and lighting and stands are not normally long term installations.  They could be completed in just a few months. 

By June, you will start to see everything starting to take more shape and the folks will be able to actually see progress week by week.   By football season,  the multi purpose complex will be taking full form, however still a few more months from completion.   The Baseball and Softball complex could be closer to completion by late fall of 2020, and should be ready for full use in 2021.   Hopefully,  Lufkin basketball will get a chance to play at some point in their new digs sometime in 2021.

I plan to go out next week a take another close look around and get some pictures,  only if enough progress has been made since my last trip out there 3 weeks ago.  Will get back soon and let you all know.   Thanks.

 

Go Pack!!

[PackAttack]

One thing I remember said from one of our meetings last fall.   Coach said that even though the two were going to sit side by side, the footprint of the New Multipurpose Gym/Facility project would NOT match the existing Abe Martin footprint.     The answer again, is the ADA issue and how Abe Martin was grand fathered to some degree by the 1991 ADA regulations to make improvements, it's now called SAFE  HARBOR  under the revisions made to the ADA regulation in 2010.  This 2010 revision is why the ADA seating was installed on both sides of the stadium, on each end of the existing concrete seating, but NOT touching the existing concrete seating.  If they are not touching, then the existing old structure, built in 1973,  and before 1991 is not required to meet ADA compliance, not even the press box.  The 2010 revision prompted the Abe Martin seating additions for handicap access for the fans and having 1% of the seating capacity in a stadium to be ADA compliant, according to the new 2010 regulations.     Take what you can get right now and these new additions will be spectacular once they are completed.  

 

https://www.nfhs.org/articles/disabled-spectator-access-to-facilities-contemporary-legal-standards/

 

I've often thought about what it would cost to remove the Abe Martin concrete seating and press box, then overlaying the remaining existing concrete supports with new ADA compliant Aluminum seating ?? A few upgrades and renovations below the stands and you will have a nice place for a long time.  Much less expensive than a total implode and rebuild or complete new stadium. Maybe it could be done for a couple million. I don't know, but you would save on soil work and your supports are already in place. That in itself is a huge savings. The aluminum is lighter, so the weight would not be an issue. Just a thought, I'm absolutely sure the school district has thought about many options over the years and had engineers give their expertise on them all.  It's just a matter of having the money to get something like that done.  For some reason here in Lufkin, it's hard to get money approved by the voters for football.  It has always puzzled me.

https://adata.org/faq/my-building-grandfathered-under-older-ada-standards-or-do-i-need-comply-new-2010-ada-standards

[PackAttack]

Going to delete some of the older construction photos, just in case you notice stuff like that.   No need to just see dirt work.  The progress and up to date scenes of every thing will much more interesting.  Right now, close to the first of May, things are still in the ground preparation stages.    So hang in there, I know time is ticking slow for lots of people right now.  

[Pack007]

Thanks for the updates PA. 

[PackAttack]

A couple of months back there was some disagreement about the downsizing of the Baseball/Softball Complex offices and concession stands, a total downsize of 2600 FT.  Some were not happy about it.

I wanted to show you in full context what has happen and how there really isn't a negative to any of it and a BIG plus on the Multi-Purpose Gym.  

What they talking about deducting from the Baseball/Softball Complex was,  the possibility of eliminating the two concession stands from the main building and moved them to the storage buildings under the press box.  Some space possibly was deducted in the office areas.  They budgeted $5.25 Million to do the work and as proposed was going to be $7-8 Million.  

What is happening is the Multi-Purpose is going to be much larger than planned 20,000 sq ft larger and more money is being spent there, $13.6M instead of $9.45M. 

The Reality here is the concessions and addition office space can be easily added at the Baseball/Softball Complex sometime in the future, whereas additions to the Multi-Purpose Gym need to be done now and could not be added on later.

Here is the complete explanation that we posted a while back from the LDN. It's a good time to just to refresh everyone's memory.

 

• Representatives from Goodwin-Lasiter-Strong presented updated proposed plans for the ball field construction on the high school campus.

 

This proposed plan is 6,923 square feet, 2,600 square feet less than the original plans. It would cost somewhere around $7-8 million. The fields were originally estimated to be 7% of the $75 million bond or $5.25 million.

Mark Strong and Hudson Henderson said they compressed rooms, reduced interior corridors and opened more of the facility to the outside to cut as much square footage as possible.

“When we first started cutting things, we were taking a red pen to the plan,” Henderson said. “After the conversations we had, and on this revision, I didn’t take a red pen. I took a pair of scissors.”

While these changes still allow for everything a student athlete should need, the changes will be felt, Henderson said. Things are smaller, things are different, rooms are missing, hallways are missing.

“One of the big things we did — I know there was some big debate in the past about whether there should be one concession stand or two — you’ll notice concession stands are no longer a part of this building,” Henderson said. “The storage rooms that are underneath the press boxes at each field will now serve as the concession stands.”

Athletic Director Todd Quick told the board this plan looked good — the students could deal with smaller facilities. His concern was making sure they kept the integrity of the turf fields.

“Our main concern was the turf because that’s where we’re going to spend about 99% of our time,” Quick said. “Very little time is going to be spent in here.”

The general consensus of the board seemed to be that this was the most they could cut from the plan, and they needed to go with it and get it out for bid for a guaranteed maximum price.

“We’re going to spend forever if we don’t nail it down,” board member Hall Henderson said. “At this point, I think we’ve reached the point of the integrity of the project.”

“These are your minimum necessities to maintain a baseball/softball complex,” Hudson Henderson said.

 

 

Stephen Berry with Berry & Clay Construction, construction manager for the multipurpose facility and the middle school projects, discussed a potential guaranteed maximum price for the multipurpose facility.

The anticipated price was $215 per square foot. However, thanks to quite a few bids that came in, the price came out to $208.14, he said.

The original square footage was set at 45,000, but the current total is 65,200 square feet. Clay said that after he spoke with those who would be using it, the additional space was determined necessary to properly serve students.

“The building is actually 20,000 square feet bigger than the bond, but that was more or less because we added an auxiliary gym to the back and we increased it so we could have cross court,” Clay said. “These were all things that the district as a group felt was best for the overall use of the facility.”

Superintendent Lynn Torres and several board members commented, pointing out the need and thanking the company for approaching the building plans in the way they did.

“I don’t think people realize how gym-short we actually are currently at the high school with just the purple and the gold gym and having to run adaptive P.E., P.E. classes, drill team, cheerleading and so forth,” Torres said. “This actually puts us in a better position.”

“We’re gym poor, and from a functionality standpoint, our high school doesn’t operate well, and won’t, for game nights, especially tournaments, if we don’t do the facility in the way it’s designed now,” trustee Hall Henderson said.

The design process began by asking all involved for everything in their wildest dreams. That resulted in a design that was 99,000 square feet. Then the designers scaled back and scaled back until they couldn’t scale anymore unless they wanted to take away from the students’ experience, Clay said.

“I appreciate the fact that ya’ll went to the people who were going to be using it and said, what’s your wildest dream?” member Allison Langston said. “Now let’s edit that dream to what we need to have, functionally, to make this work for our students and our coaches and everybody involved.”

The total price of the project comes out to $13.6 million. Local companies will receive $3.8 million for their work on the project.

[PackAttack]

A few day ago when I was able to go out and check on the new construction.  I noticed they still had a lots of water and sewer pipe to install and a bunch of dirt work to complete on the back side of the project.   This area has taken a long while to complete for some reason.   

Anyway, they have made a lot of progress in that area in the 2 weeks since I was last out that way.  The construction area for the baseball/softball complex has really moved out a lot of earth.  They have everything to grade level now, looks like they are working on the road construction to reconnect the Old Junior High East Road, which I believe is Ware Rd now.   Working on the drainage culverts too.  They are really moving along well on that project with the better weather.  Concrete should be soon there too for the offices and light pole bases,  as well as with the Multipurpose. Pouring the remainder of the foundation and concrete building supports will happen soon.  Then we will be able to start  seeing more visual progress.    .  

No pictures today because there is not enough substantial change to post any additional.  Maybe next week.     I am excited to see everything going in and to watch the progress move along with time.  They are spending $18.85 million dollars for this total upgrade.  It's all going to look very nice when they are finished.