CLAXTON — A $2.5 million school athletic complex planned for construction in Claxton this fall will mean less travel for future tennis and track teams and a home of their own for baseball and softball. Officials hope it will also help the schools attract and keep coaches.
At this point, Claxton High School has only a nonregulation dirt track for practice and cannot host track meets. Despite this, the CHS Tigers boys track team placed third in the state in Class A this year. Meanwhile, Claxton’s girls and boys tennis teams played “home” matches 19 miles away on Tattnall County High School’s courts, but qualified for the playoffs.
The Tiger boys of baseball and girls of softball play on the Evans County Recreation Department’s fields, also in Claxton, by long-standing arrangement. The tennis teams practice on courts at the Recreation Department, but abandoned them for competition use two years ago because of problems with the playing surface.
A school-controlled facility for these sports has been proposed for more than 10 years. School system officials postponed it through two five-year plans for the Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, giving priority to classroom facilities such as the new $11 million Claxton Middle School completed last summer.
But when Evans County voters approved another five-year extension of the school SPLOST last November, the athletic facility moved to the top of the list.
“It has been put off, but it is time,” says Dr. Joy Collins, the Evans County school superintendent. “Our kids deserve it.”
So that construction can begin this year, the Evans County Board of Education on May 13 unanimously approved moving forward with a bond issue.
First bond issue
Although earlier school SPLOST referendums authorized issuing bonds if needed, this will be the first time the board has used this borrowing power. Previously, the Evans school system amassed cash from the tax first before beginning each project. But money from the new five-year SPLOST will not begin arriving until May 2014.
“And it is something to think carefully about, but I believe this BOE has tremendous insight to do this for our kids,” Collins said. “In this case we are just using our SPLOST for very little cost, which we will most likely save on construction costs in the long run.”
SP Design Group of Macon has drafted plans for the complex, and King-Cooper Associates of Thomaston is guiding the school board through the bond issue. With information from these firms, Evans County school officials expect that the money can be borrowed from bond buyers at about a 2 percent interest rate, and that inflation on construction costs would likely be greater than that if they waited.
The 1 percent school SPLOST generates about $1.3 million per year in Evans County, so the money for the project would take two to three years to accumulate. But the proposed bonds will provide $3 million up front, to be repaid over the five-year course of the newly extended SPLOST.
This approach also allows the sales tax revenue to be budgeted so that some can be used at the same time for other things, including school buses, classroom technology and building improvements, Collins said.
The bond documents should be ready in a couple of months, she said, based on King-Cooper’s discussions with the board. Collins hopes that construction can begin by late summer. She cited a cost estimate for the complete facility of $2.5 million to $2.8 million.
Multiple sports
As currently drawn, it will include a baseball field, a softball field, four tennis courts and a regulation, oval track with a rubberized surface surrounding a field for football practice or soccer games. Other proposed features include a field house with locker rooms, a paved parking area, concession stands, restrooms and a press box, lighting and spectator seating.
The athletic complex will be built on the access road to the new Claxton Middle School on Hendrix Street. This campus is linked by a bus driveway to Claxton Elementary School and is about a mile from the Claxton High campus. Both the middle and high school athletic programs will use the complex, and the elementary school will have access for events such as field days, Collins said.
The new facility will allow the schools to schedule games without having to coordinate with the Recreation Department. It should also provide better control of access to the baseball and softball fields for charging admission, Collins said.
Neither the Recreation Department nor the Tattnall County school system charge the Evans County schools for sharing facilities. But the tennis and track teams not having to travel to every event will result in some savings on transportation, she noted.
Hosting track meets could bring money into the athletic department through ticket sales.
“We’ve been so competitive in track and field that it’s got to be beneficial to have your own track, and definitely hosting track meets will generate income, having an invitational where you get to bring other schools in and have your own concessions to generate money for your programs,” said Patrick Hendrix, Claxton High School’s athletic director.
Hendrix and Collins both expressed hope that improved athletic facilities can help attract coaches and keep them in Claxton.
Recent departures of coaches, and reassignment of a few teachers who coach to other duties, leave Hendrix and the principals with a slate of recruiting to do this summer. As of this week, they were in need of a head baseball coach, a head softball coach, a boys track coach, a tennis coach and an assistant football coach.
“I hope that if we have a nicer facility people will come and stay on,” Hendrix said. “It’s hard when you’re a baseball or softball coach to kind of work around and use the Rec Department when it’s not your own field to use at your own luxury, so to speak.”
The planned complex does not include a football field except for the practice field encircled by the track. Bell Memorial Field, known as the Pecan Grove, is about a half-mile from the site of the planned new facility and will continue to be the home of Claxton Tigers football.