BROWNSTOWN

Later this year, Brownstown Central High School will take on a different look outside and inside.

An exterior project will include installing an artificial turf football field, increasing the track to eight lanes, constructing a new field events area and adding 132 parking spaces to the lot near the entrance to the football stadium and gymnasiums.

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An interior project will include heating, ventilation and air conditioning and LED lighting work in some classrooms and the cafeteria; remodeling restrooms, locker rooms, the band room and the teacher’s lounge; and installing new windows on the perimeter of the building.

Superintendent Greg Walker said he expects the exterior project to begin around spring break.

The football field and track project will be the priority so it is completed by Aug. 1 and doesn’t interfere with football games. He said the track and field teams will have all of their meets on the road in the spring and will practice somewhere on campus.

At the same time as the turf project, the contractor will use some of that soil for preparing the new parking lot, corporation business manager Jade Peters said.

The interior project could start as early as April working in some locker rooms students aren’t using, he said.

“Other than that, it will be in full swing as soon as school lets out (in late May),” Peters said.

Matt Gullo with Kovert Hawkins Architects of Jeffersonville presented details about the exterior project as part of a public hearing during a recent Brownstown Central Community School Corp. board of trustees meeting.

With input from school officials, he designed a couple of layouts for the turf field.

One has green turf, a black and red Brownstown Central logo in the center of the field, red coaches’ boxes on each side of the field and a black end zone with “Braves” in red lettering on both ends. The other one is the same except with black coaches’ boxes and a red end zone with “Braves” in white lettering.

The north end of the field will be a D zone with artificial turf to be used as practice space.

The track will be refurbished and expanded from six lanes to eight, which will allow the school to host larger meets. The pole vault and long jump areas will remain on the south end of the football field but will be on a track surface.

In the grassy area south of the track, the discus area will be redone, and the shot put area will be added behind the high jump pit. The high jump area also will have a track surface.

Installing new drainage for the football field and track will help prevent sporting events from being rained out.

“You will be able to use this field pretty much 24/7,” Gullo said.

Besides the football and track and field teams, the field and track can be used by physical education classes, the marching band and the public.

“The field is going to be a great asset for your school and the community itself,” Gullo said.

A new main entrance also is being proposed at Blevins Memorial Stadium.

Sitting back nearly 20 feet from the existing curb, the entrance concept will help flow traffic into the stadium, give people a place to congregate or wait for someone to pick them up and be safer, Gullo said. It also will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A front-facing ticket booth with two windows will allow ticketing to be done before entering the gate, and a large canopy entrance area will keep ticket-takers out of the elements.

There also will be plaza space with a low brick wall for people to sit and congregate.

“It’s all-around just a better use of the space and helps create a more unified space and actually gives a really nice aesthetic feel to this area,” Gullo said.

Also proposed at the stadium are redoing the visitor’s bleachers to make them ADA compliant and adding a fenced-in 4-foot-wide walkway around the perimeter of the track. The latter project would separate spectators from those on the field or track.

The entrance to the parking lot along West Bridge Street will be widened to include one way in and two turn lanes out, and a right-turn-only exit will be added near the last row of spaces in the new parking lot. Those changes will help with traffic flow, Gullo said.

The new parking lot will have three entrances, and six new light poles also will be installed.

Gullo said the field and track are part of a base bid, while there are seven alternates that will be split up to create competition between contractors making bids.

Those parts, including adding a family restroom that has ADA accessibility near the main entrance, will be included if they fit into the school corporation’s project budget.

EMCOR Construction Services of Indianapolis once again will oversee the interior project.

In the summer of 2017, new HVAC units and LED lights were installed in the hallways and nearly all of the classrooms at the high school, and air conditioning was added to the main and auxiliary gyms.

This year, HVAC upgrades will be made in the agriculture, industrial arts, technology, consumer science and band classrooms; the cafeteria; the guidance office; the old athletic office area; the teacher’s lounge; and small office areas.

Heating and cooling units will be placed on the roof of the school building. They will get rid of the old, noisy units that sit under windows, freeing up space in the rooms so it can be used for other purposes, said Kevin Livingston with EMCOR.

They will be tied into the energy management system, and there will be new acoustical ceilings, LED light fixtures and lighting controls.

The LED lights last longer, are cheaper and save money, Peters said.

The 1963 locker room underneath the north end of the main gymnasium, the 1999 locker room on the east end of the gym, the 1963 restrooms, all single-occupancy restrooms, the band room and the teacher’s lounge all will be renovated.

The locker rooms and restrooms will have new plumbing fixtures, partitions, flooring, paint, electric hand dryers, acoustical ceilings and LED light fixtures. The showers in the 1963 locker room also will be remodeled, and new lockers and floor benches will be installed.

The band room refurbishment will include new carpet tile flooring, painted walls, secured instrument storage units, larger dedicated practice rooms, an expanded dressing area, sound-absorption panels and soundproof entry doors.

The interior project also will include replacing perimeter windows with insulated glass units to make them more efficient. Those windows also are from the original school building in 1963.

After the public hearing, the board voted 7-0 to approve the interior project and 6-1 for the exterior project, with Trustee David Martin casting the lone nay vote.

This year’s work will cost $5 million, which will come out of the corporation’s debt service fund.