The Mahomet-Seymour School District is ready to move forward with the renovation of the field house at the high school and the CAIR Center.
Mahomet-Seymour Superintendent Lindsey Hall said the field house, which was built 20 years ago, has safety concerns.
“The floor is very slippery, has lost its ‘tack’ and is a safety issue,” she said. “We are nearing the point of having parts of the field house be unusable.”
On Monday, the Mahomet-Seymour School Board heard about potential renovation projects from BLDD Architect Damien Schlitt.
Bids will be due on March 5, and acceptance of those bids is expected to come six days later.
Schlitt said that renovation of the CAIR Center, which provides the Mahomet-Seymour community with access to two racquetball courts, treadmills and weight machines for an annual nominal fee, could begin prior to the March 5 date with board approval because the cost of the projects would be less than $50,000. The CAIR Center is in the same building as the Alternative Ed building and the football stadium concession stands.
Schlitt believes that providing a storage solution at the racquetball courts would cost the district $22,500 and $9,200 to upgrade the training room.
Should the board approve concessions renovations near the football field, Schlitt believes that amount would come to $30,044. Superintendent Lindsey Hall said the Mahomet-Seymour Boosters has expressed interest in helping with those costs, but a final arrangement has not been made.
Hall said M-S Boosters may also be willing to cover bleachers for the field house, but those details are also not finalized.
The district might be able to find money in health, life safety funds for a few of the remaining projects in the field house, including $23,000 for the fresh air intake fan and $6,000 to repair the field house exterior walls.
By using a purchasing co-op, a new field house floor, including replacing the existing track and court surfaces with a synthetic rubber material, would cost the district $572,219. Schlitt said the existing surfaces had a life of approximately 15 years, but the new surfaces are built to withstand 20 to 30 years of use with maintenance.
Schlitt said the court area would look like wood, and the track area would be blue with grey highlights. He suggested that the courts could have accents, such as a Bulldog logo in the center court or blue-colored flooring inside the three-point lines.
Schlitt also suggested replacing the field house curtains with a co-op, which would run $175,135.
The field house will get a fresh coat of paint at $112,638 at tectum panels, which will protect the wall and provide acoustics at $72,140.
Exhaust and lighting in Mahomet-Seymour’s three sets of locker rooms may be covered under health, life, safety funds.
The locker rooms would also receive new flooring in the shower areas, ceiling repair, locker updates, such as paint and new hardware, and wall paint.
The team locker rooms would receive new lockers. Schlitt presented that renovations for the boys’ field house locker rooms could be done at $46,163, the girls’ field house locker rooms at $29,569, the boys’ team locker rooms at $34,575, the girls’ team locker rooms at $33,724, the boys’ PE locker rooms at $47,581 and the girls’ PE locker rooms at $47,581.
Hall said all funds not covered by health, life, safety or M-S Boosters would be covered by sales tax dollars.
According to Schlitt’s times, all construction should be complete by 2019.
Mahomet-Seymour High School coaches have been notified that construction may take place in the field house during the summer months, and the district is working to provide alternative spaces for camps and summer activities.
