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January 10, 2013

School board rejects track renovation bids

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — A renovation to the Duncan High School track won’t take place for a while, but the school’s Athletic Department may still host a track meet before a full renovation takes place.

During Tuesday’s regular meeting, the Duncan Board of Education voted to reject bids for a track renovation and improvement project. Burl White, athletic director, said the track is due for a renovation, but the lack of bids and the possibility of changing the bid spects did result in the rejection of the bids received.

Despite rejecting bids, the school board listened to White and track coach Dale Harris as they discussed the possibility of hosting a track meet at the DHS track.

“I talked to Coach (Todd) Ledford today and we’re going to try to run a track meet on it, if it can be patched,” White said. “We can practice on it every day, and we avoid the bad places.

“We can’t wait four, five, six weeks to decide can we, can’t we?”

Harris said he and Ledford felt the track could be patched to where it would be useable for a track meet. The track would be patched by the school district’s Maintenance Department.

White said, if the track isn’t able to be patched to where it is safe to use during a track meet, there are plenty of other track meets throughout the state. He said the idea is to avoid having students miss out on competitive opportunities.

Harris said the temperature outside could impact the ability to host a track meet at DHS. He said the warmer it is, the more difficult it would be to use the track.

“We felt like we could get it in shape for an earlier, cooler meet,” Harris said.

While the idea is to have a track meet at the high school, White did have some concerns. He said the holes in the track can be easily patched, but there are bubbles under the track, which could be a problem.

He said an additional artificial runway would have to be added for pole vaulting. He said that would be an additional cost of about $1,000, which is money that could be put toward the renovation of the track.

“Is it worth having another track meet?” White said to the school board.

White said now is not a good time to renovate the track, especially with the various activities and events slated to use the track throughout the remainder of the school year and into the summer.

The school board did discuss re-bidding the project in the spring.

The coaches appeared before the school board at the request of Superintendent Sherry Labyer, who wanted them to talk about possibility of hosting a track meet before the renovation project can take place.

White said the current plan is to have a track meet. But that hinges on repairs to the track itself.

“It’s always favorable to have it at home,” White said.

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