AMHERST — Before embarking on building a new track and soccer field at Amherst Regional High School, school officials intend to move forward with hiring a company to prepare schematic designs that will provide significantly more detail than a feasibility study completed in fall 2018.
To pay for the design work, $200,000 is being sought from the Community Preservation Act accounts in the four district towns of Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett.
The largest portion of this, $157,500, would come from Amherst, with smaller amounts being sought from the other three communities.
Superintendent Michael Morris told the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee on Tuesday that continuing design work is necessary to get more precise estimates of how much the towns will need to spend and to begin making decisions on facets of the plan for the athletic fields.
Those decisions will include whether the soccer field should have grass or synthetic turf, whether it needs to be built to a championship-caliber size, and whether the orientation of the track should be east-west or north-south.
“The feasibility study got us to a certain place on those, but there is a lot still unresolved that we need answers to,” Morris said.
The study by Weston & Sampson of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, gave a preliminary cost estimate of $3.9 million to $6.2 million. The study identified many problems with playing fields in Amherst stemming from years of neglect, with many deemed to be in fair or poor condition. Some of the most significant problems were documented with the soccer field, which is often wet and drains poorly.
The study also identified replacing the latex-covered asphalt track, built in 1999, as an immediate need.
If the schools get the CPA money from the towns, the design work would be done beginning July 1, with construction then able to start July 1, 2021, and be completed before June 30, 2022.
Morris said the schematics will set up a “matrix of options” so Athletic Director Victoria Stewart, athletics boosters and the larger community can begin understanding the scope of the work needed. Better cost estimates will also allow Morris and Doug Slaughter, the school finance chief, to begin engaging officials in each town in advance of additional spending requests.
“Any of the options will be much more expensive than perhaps people want to feel,” Morris said. “The sticker shock is real for these communities who are struggling with tax rates and tax caps and all sorts of other needs in their communities, as well.”
