Project managers are confident a Palmerton Area School District junior high school addition and turf athletic field installation project will go out to bid early in 2017.

During an update to the school board Tuesday night, Tim Sisock, of Barry Isett and Associates, said contracts could be awarded at a February board meeting, with work starting in the spring.Palmerton is planning a 13,420-square-foot addition to the existing junior high, and renovations to the track and football field with a synthetic turf and drainage system, installing a visitor bleacher section, building a new softball field, rehabilitating the parking areas and various other improvements.“The stadium schedule has been aggressive from the start,” Sisock said. “We’ve spoken with large contractors who said it would be feasible to construct the field in a small time frame. That may require some extra overhead cost to get the field ready for the middle of August.”Palmerton is going through the approval process with various agencies leading up to Lower Towamensing Township’s review of final land development plans.The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation required the district to make “very minor changes to its driveways at the high school/junior high complex including removing concrete islands, which officials said are no longer allowed.Submissions to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit and Palmerton Municipal Authority for water are also planned within the next month.“As far as stormwater goes, in front of the addition there will be an underground detention system and at the field there will be two underground infiltration beds,” Sisock said.The final land development plan is expected to be in front of township supervisors for approval in February.Sisock said a “significant amount of earth work” would get the field to its proper elevation.“The pitch is different for a turf field than it is for natural grass,” he said. “A turf field has a lower base so there will be topsoil stripped off the field. The excess material will be used at the practice field to give it a constant slope. That also saves money on hauling that material off site.”One part of Palmerton’s building program already nearing completion is heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades at the high school.According to Sisock, boilers were to be turned on today, meaning the district could draw heat in the building if conditions called for it.The Pennsylvania Department of Education requires heat be available by Oct. 15.Chillers, meanwhile, will be operable by the end of the week.“You’ll have both heat and air conditioning by the end of the week,” Sisock said.