News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Academy’s Football Team will have to find a new home for the upcoming season.
The high school’s field will be out of commission until next spring as the school system moves forward with stadium renovations. Building Committee Chairman Mike Hayes said during a meeting Thursday night the plans will flip the home and visitor sides and install new bleachers. Both concession stands will also be torn down. Hayes said they will be replaced either by one single building for all amenities, or two new facilities on each side of the field.
Hayes said school officials and coaching staff are now tasked with finding an alternate site to play.
“We may look and say, ‘Hey, our home games are going to be at Tech,’ or look and say. ‘We’re going to be on the road for 10 games,'” Hayes said. “I don’t know the answer to that. It is more of the coaches getting together and making that decision. Do we use Cookeville High School and work that way? That’s the closest county that we can work with and do anything. I am sure the coach and the coaching staff will work together and coordinate with us.”
Surveying the land and creating the stadium design will be next. Engineer John Cheney said a concept master plan should be completed by mid-summer. Then, construction will begin.
“You could do it as fast as five months if everything happened right,” Cheney said. “But, probably you are looking realistically at six to eight (months).”
The system’s budget for the project is set at $4.3 million. Cheney said adjustments to prices will likely be required as material prices have changed since the original plan was approved.
“The only thing I foresee as an issue is you have to have that maximum number of restrooms,” Hayes said. “And is there going to be a big enough building to compensate that area.”
Installing a pump station, so the bathrooms will not run on septic is also in the plans. Hayes said he is still in negotiations when it comes to the land purchase to build a track.
