Now that the Howe ISD Board of Trustees has approved a 3 percent increase in pay for teachers, attention has been shifted to the continued upgrade of facilities. Howe High School is undergoing a transformation to move the office to the front entrance and the middle school and intermediate schools were both renovated a year ago. Now the attention has turned to Bulldog Stadium and if Howe Bulldogs fans ever wanted artificial turf on the field at Bulldog Stadium, it appears the window is cracked open for such an idea like never before. The board, on Monday night, discussed options for repairing or rebuilding the track at Bulldog Stadium. Three companies gave the ISD bids on the project. Two of the companies said the track needed to be demolished and rebuilt. One company said that the track could be repaired as is, but it would be a 5-year fix. The repair would be half the cost of a full replacement which is in the $700K-$850K range. Superintendent Kevin Wilson said he’d have a hard time recommending an expenditure of $350K for a short-term fix.
The infrastructure of the 35-year-old original project is failing especially with the outside lane that has become virtually unusable in front of the west side home bleachers due to safety concerns.
“A new track should last 20-plus years,” said Wilson. “This opens up a new can of worms which is if you redo the track, should you put turf on the field?”
The conversation started with the options of turfing the field in conjunction with the rebuild, but also the conversation made its way to a full-scale project with an 8-lane competition track.
An 8-lane track would call for a domino effect of projects that would have to take place for that to happen including a tear-down of the current concession stand and home bleachers. Another hurdle in the way of a massive overhaul is a projected price tag of $2-3 million or more which smashes against available bond capacity.
“If you want to host a big track meet, everyone has 8-lanes,” said Wilson. “Six lanes is certainly adequate for our meets. It’s just if you want to make it a major project, that (8-lanes) would be the logical thing to do. If you’re going to do the full meal deal, you’re probably looking a bond issue. In today’s economy, I personally think that would be a tough sell.”
One question asked from Board member Tamela Shadden was if an 8-lane track could be constructed at the high school on Ponderosa Road. Wilson said that the practice field might have to be reconfigured and bleachers and lights installed, but all options were on the table.
The most likely option it seems would include a complete rebuild of the current track to its existing 6-lane track. The school has budgeted $500,000 for the project.
“If we decided to move forward this year, I feel like we could find the extra money to make that happen.”
Athletic Director Bill Jehling has made it no secret that he’d prefer to have a turf football field which would provide non-muddy practice surfaces for other sports as well as the band and allows savings on uniform wear and tear. He says it’s increasingly harder and harder to find good young coaches willing to mow and paint and stripe a grass field.
The Howe Youth Sports Association says field conditions have cost them many times over the years from hosting games and playoffs which is a big funding portion of their non-profit organization.
The stadium went through many upgrades beginning in 2014 with a new press box and the removal of the old field house the construction of a new locker-room. Those upgrades took place when Howe shared the district with Tom Bean, Whitewright, S&S, and Leonard who have natural grass playing surfaces. Now that Howe has been elevated to Division I for a number of years, they are playing the likes of Rains, Commerce, Bonham, Pottsboro, Mineola, and others that are turf. The stadium also tends to be somewhat of a reflection of community pride and Howe has a small window to do it now. The Bulldogs also look around at neighboring teams of their size with turf such as Bells, Gunter, Tioga, Whitesboro, Blue Ridge, and Honey Grove.
The board made no decision in a direction and the 3-month project would not begin until after the football season in the fall (should that happen). If scheduled during that time, it could be ready by the time track season begins in 2021.
