Putnam Sports Complex Expansion To Begin After July 4

Construction materials are moving on site for Putnam County’s Sports Complex expansion.

Parks and Recreation Director John Ross Albertson said it is a relief to see things ramping up for construction after July 4. Albertson said when that begins, the ground will be leveled out first for the new sports fields.

“We would hope that we would be able to seed this fall and hopefully open in the spring would be the anticipation,” Albertson said. “So hopefully everything is able to stay on track and move forward at a good pace.”

Albertson said once the ground is leveled, work would begin on the drainage and then move to constructing the new entrance off North Washington Avenue. Albertson said the new entrance will alleviate traffic on Whiteaker Springs Road.

“Rodgers Group has already started moving some stuff on site that they needed,” Albertson said. “So we’re hoping that after July 4 we’ll see some earth moving. They’re starting to get some drainage on site, some different things of that nature that they need. Some pipe, some precastings to start moving forward with the project.”

Putnam County was awarded $333,500 for this project in 2018. Albertson said there was worry about bid prices with such a long delay for the sports complex expansion.

“We were very concerned about that because the projects been going on for what, around three to four years now?” Alberston said. “So our anticipation was that the bids would come in extremely high and fortunately this one came in under budget.”

The expansion consists of adding two new fields. One will be located at the old airport hanger off North Washington while the other will sit north north of the two existing fields.