Michigan Center's offense takes the field to approve critical track and football field upgrades

By RJ Walters / For the Jackson Citizen Patriot

The Michigan Center School District will renovate the track and football field to solve drainage issues and upgrade a field that has not undergone major updates in over 50 years.

The school board accepted a proposal Monday to spend up to $385,442 on a new grass field, complete with a drainage system that will replace 24-inch sewer lines that are clogged with sediment, according to Superintendent David Tebo.

In other business

The Michigan Center School Board agreed to increase the price of family athletic passes from $150 to $170 for the 2010-11 school year Monday. They have been at the current rate for four years and athletic director Greg Pscodna said the increase would essentially pay for the production of the passes.

Extensive work will be done on the track, which Tebo said has cracks as deep as 4 inches, and the parking lot will be squared up and re-painted.

Money for the undertaking will come from the capital project fund the district has been adding to for years. Concord Excavating was the lowest bidder for the project and will be contracted upon signing an agreement.

The deadline for project completion is Aug. 27, the opening night of the high school football season.

“Controlling water is a costly thing, but it needs to be done and this has been talked about since the day I walked in (as superintendent),” Tebo said. “And with the economy like it is we can actually leverage better costs and get this done cheaper.”

In March the board voted down installing a proposed turf field, which was estimated to cost $480,000 compared to about $90,000 for a grass field.

This project is also almost $50,000 less than originally proposed because the plans to move the shot put pit and install a path for visitors on the south end of the field were scrapped.

Tebo said an additional project to renovate or build new restrooms and concession stands has been talked about by the finance committee and could be presented in the near future.

“For the women it’s a tight squeeze, and for guys it’s a lot of standing in long lines, so we need to address that, and the committee does have funds we could use,” he said.