Tamaqua Area School District will be soon be wrapping up work on its tennis courts and begin looking changes at its stadium.

Superintendent Ray Kinder updated school directors on the tennis court reconstruction project during Tuesday’s board committee meetings, pointing out that compression tests on the surface were completed.

“They performed even better the second time,” he said. “We’re pleased with the fact that we addressed the situation so that it does not give us any problems in the future.”

The board originally approved the $250,000 reconstruction project without drainage work on the courts, because previous estimates came in at $400,000, or $150,000 above what approved. In July, the board moved ahead with adding drainage work at cost of $64,445.

The tennis court reconstruction is one of the capital improvement projects the board moved forward on recently.

The board also approved $1.45 million contract for a new roof at the high school earlier this year. The district received a $450,000 grant for the roofing project, which was already on its improvement list.

Stadium upgrades

The board is also eyeing improvements at the stadium with the addition of a pole building and a new concession stand.

The project paused when bids for the work came in much higher than expected, not once, but twice. To save money, the district undertook site preparation for the new concession stand itself.

The pad for the concession stand is now complete, Kinder said, and the administration asked the board to solicit requests for proposals for an architectural firm to draw up specifications for the modified project.

The project, as explained by Kinder, now includes taking down the existing building and erecting a new, larger pole building to serve the district’s growing storage needs. The concession stand would also be completed as part of the process, he said.

Kinder also suggested bidding out the pole building and concession stand together, and also each building separately.

Board member Nicholas Boyle asked why they needed to hire an architectural firm for the specifications for pole building. The administration felt that they had too many issues going with plans from a local draftsman, instead of an architectural/engineering firm last round.

Business Manager Connie Ligenza said that she was bombarded with questions from contractors regarding specific details on design and parts, which were not specified in the plans.

Not having these details in the plans may have contributed to the higher than expected bids last year, administrators said.

Boyle also asked if they were still considering moving the locker room down to the new building, but Kinder said they moved away from those plans due to the increased cost.

“We believe that would be closer to a $2 or $3 million project,” Kinder said. “If we’re going to do that, it’d be better served in another location, as opposed to something on the end of a pole building.”

The finance committee agreed to seek RFPs for an architectural firm, which the full board will advance next week.