The Oconto Falls School Board on Nov. 11 approved spending up to $20,000 to get the planning process off the ground for new baseball fields on the campus of the new Oconto Falls Middle School.
The board voted unanimously to contract with the civil engineering firm Point of Beginning Inc. to design the baseball facility.
In October, the organization Trent Maloney Memorial Inc. asked the board to support building high school varsity and junior varsity baseball fields on the new middle school campus, which is located across County Road I from Oconto Falls High School, in a community campaign to raise private and public funds.
Board members were generally in support of the idea but wanted more information, including a professional design to help determine the project’s feasibility.
“We don’t know if the project can happen at this point, so this is us paying for the design work up front,” Superintendent Dean Hess said in presenting the proposal from Point of Beginning.
The $20,000 figure for design work is about one-third of the cost estimate presented in October. Hess said most firms are reluctant to create a design unless there’s some assurance they will also be hired to build the project, but the district is not yet certain the project can move forward.
“So unfortunately we’re only able to have one bid, so to speak, for this design work, but I think the cost is in our favor,” he said.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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