“The press box at Evans Stadium had initially sustained severe water damage several years ago and had been deemed unusable by the City of Springfield. It was then demolished. In order to be more cost effective, the choice was made to refurbish the scoreboard instead of replace it,” said communications specialist Jenna Leinasars. “This project is important to maintain a high-quality facility for our middle school student athletes to utilize.”
The $283,900 project will be done by Prodigy Building Solutions in late summer or early fall.
“Each department goes through a thorough research process to determine a company that can offer a competitive bid to complete the work needed. In this case, that was Prodigy Building Solutions, LLC through their cooperative bidding process,” Leinasars said.
The Wildcats had played at Evans, which is located on Clifton Avenue in the back lot of Hayward Middle School, since 2019 when excessive rain and wind damaged the press box.
The district consulted with an engineering firm to assess the damage, and an architecture firm recommended that no one use the press box until repairs were made because it was a safety hazard.
In 2020, the press box was removed due to the extensive deterioration caused by hidden water damage, and the visitors’ bleachers on the north side of the field were also removed because of deterioration on the footers of the substructure.
Evans Stadium was the former playing field of the South High School Wildcats before South and North high schools combined in 2008 and relocated to East Home Road to form Springfield High School. After the merger, Springfield High’s football team continued to play their football games across town at Evans before moving games north in subsequent years.
The contract for the project was approved at the Jan. 4 school board meeting. The funding for these improvements will be taken from the district’s capital improvement budget.
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