by Malcolm Butler
Ruston High School softball will have a new home soon.
The question is where.
After playing the past few years out at the Ruston Sports Complex, the Lady Bearcats will call home somewhere else soon.
Today’s Lincoln Parish School Board and Ruston City Council meetings will both determine the future site as well as other financial issues surrounding additional projects associated with the $17.5 million bond that was voted through in April.
Many people believed RHS softball would return to the site of its former home facility located in the Bittersweet neighborhood adjacent to Glenview Elementary School.
However, recent talks between Lincoln Parish School Board members and the Ruston City Council have led to an alternative plan.
During tonight’s City Council meeting, a vote will be taken to approve the sale of the land on South Farmerville Street that in the past housed the Ruston Girls Softball Association fields.
The price tag for the land will be $150,000.
“Instead of building the softball field by Glenview, they can build it out at the Sports Complex,” said Walker.
Both today’s City Council and Lincoln Parish School Board meetings will help determine direction for a number of projects that fell under the bond proposal that was voted on in April.
From the Lincoln Parish School Board site of things, the plan to purchase the land is the best of its options according to LPSB President Gregg Phillips.
“We weighed the options of going back to Bittersweet which was the original plan,” said Phillips, who also said it will be voted on during Thursday’s normal monthly board meeting. “But then this opportunity became available to us.
“Being close to (RHS) baseball and tennis complexes is attractive. We also looked at the cost of moving dirt at Bittersweet versus RSGA and it made financial sense to look at the South Farmerville location. It fits for a number of reasons so that’s where we are looking to build.”
Ruston High principal Dan Gressett believes the old RSGA site is the better of the two options.
“From a cost perspective it would be significantly lower as opposed to the dirt work needed at Bittersweet,” said Gressett. “We also don’t run into parking issues there as opposed to Bittersweet. At Bittersweet you are right on the road, and it does cause some traffic issues with it being in the neighborhood.”
The Lincoln Parish School Board has a joint building and grounds and finance meeting today at noon to discuss how to trim costs off a number of the projects that fall under the $17.5 million bond that was approved through a vote last April. Bids came back higher than expected, according to Phillips.
“We got the bid information in from Clark Construction earlier (last) week on the costs of not just the softball field but security at (Ruston) Junior High … and several of those items came in higher than what we had originally been advised those costs would be when we put together the bond,” said Phillips.
“Earlier (last) week we met to rethink some things. We said, ‘Alright, this is the stuff that would be really, really nice versus the stuff that we really need to have.’ So, we are going back and revisiting some of this.”
Phillips said that he believes the LPSB will tackle the overages through value engineering aspects of certain projects as well as using additional funds through other sources.
“The meeting (today) at noon is to look at all of this, and then decide what we want to do,” said Phillips. “Those options range from pulling some items out to putting some items on the backburner to do later to the (LPSB) ponying up and paying the difference out of our building reserve fund.
“The Board will have to decide this Monday and Thursday.”
The LPSB will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday.
Below is a list of the items included in the bond proposal that passed for District 1 and District 6 in April
The Ruston District 1 proposal for capital improvement included:
Ruston Junior High School ($1,820,000 total)
– Security Upgrades (Fencing & Gates): $1.3 million
– Additional Parking: $320,000
– Body Scan Machines: $200,00
Ruston High School ($14,780,000 total)
– New Roof: $1 million
– Entrance Upgrades for Security: $950,000
– Body Scan Machines: $300,000
– Parking Lot by Gym: $330,000
– Covered Pavilion: $5 million
– Softball Field Upgrades: $3.5 million
– Boys & Girls Basketball Renovations: $1.5 million
– Baseball Upgrades: $2.2 million
Transportation ($900,000 total)
– Activity buses: $900,000
Choudrant School District No. 6 included:
Choudrant Elementary School
– Additional Classrooms with Boys and Girls Restrooms ($1.5 million)
Choudrant High School
– New Multi-Purpose Room ($500,000)
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