The Durango School District 9-R board authorized staff to pursue a low-interest loan for $1.9 million to renovate the Durango High School stadium at its meeting Tuesday, bringing the project one step closer to completion in time for the football season.
Most of the money would be used to build a new track and field, which would move from natural grass to synthetic turf. The track is so damaged, only two lanes can be used for practice, and the high school’s track team does most of its training and holds its home meet at Bayfield High School. The field is so compacted it would require $30,000 to $50,000 annually to remediate for basic safety, 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said.
The $1.9-million total includes $400,000 to build a new track at Escalante Middle School.
“The FAC (Financial Advisory Committee) only endorsed the parts of the project focused on school safety,” Snowberger said. “The track at Escalante is equally unsafe.”
A $1.9 million loan at 2.5 percent interest for 15 years would cost a little more than $153,000 annually, finance director Jason Austin told the board. The district sold a property adjoining Escalante for $142,000 last week, Snowberger said, and the board might want to consider applying that to the first year’s payment. The stadium fundraising committee has also raised more than $230,000 in cash and pledges.
“I would suggest that we be as aggressive as possible to pay it off,” Snowberger said, “and we would make sure there’s no early-payment penalty.”
The loan would be collateralized, most likely with the stadium, Austin said, although that would be a decision made by the board and the lender. If a future board refused to pay the loan, it would result in a lien on the collateral.
“My experience with a lien is that you can’t sell the property without paying it off,” Board Vice President Nancy Stubbs said. “But we wouldn’t sell the stadium. So how would that work, would they be holding their company picnics on the grass?”
The plan is to pay the loan with revenues generated by the stadium, Snowberger said, including gate revenues, rentals and advertising. A portion of the revenues would go into a fund to replace the turf at the end of its lifespan of about 10 years.
The artificial turf will greatly increase the usability of the field, said Dave Preszler, the activities director at DHS, last week. The school rations field usage with the poor condition, natural grass and relatively short growing season, but those restrictions would be removed with the new turf.
“There are lots of clubs like youth football that are interested in renting it,” said Julie Popp, who sits on the fundraising committee for the stadium project. “Some of it might be in trade. Our swim team might be able to use the pool at Fort Lewis (College) for example, and they could use the track. It can cost a lot of money to rent the pool. And since it will be available in the summer, maybe someone like Music in the Mountains might want to have a concert there.”
The board expresses some worries about a stadium covered in advertising or advertising from less than reputable businesses, but Popp said much of it would go on the computerized scoreboard.
“At first, we were offering a stadium-naming opportunity for $750,000, but no local businesses were able to cut a check that large, so it will be a year-to-year agreement,” Snowberger said.
“But that might be a good thing, because we would have been stuck with the same name for the whole 10 years. We could have ended up with Volkswagen Stadium.”
Loan proposals, along with projections on revenues, will be presented to the board at its April 12 work session. The district has until the end of April to commit to the construction to get the work done this year.
abutler@durangoherald.com
