Stadium won't be ready for season

ST. MARYS - The St. Marys Roughriders football team will call Skip Baughman Stadium home for one last season.

Roughriders Philanthropic Association secretary/treasurer Dan Burke told school board members at their Wednesday meeting that the delay in financing for the new stadium complex at the middle/high school had delayed the project too long to have it ready for the upcoming season.

"I know we were aggressive in getting the project completed this year for Aug. 24 against Sidney," Burke said. "With every project, there are some bumps in the road, and one big bump was the financing - a bank pulled out after the levy went down (on May 8 ballot)."

The project is being financed in part with a $2 million line of credit through Minster Bank and Superior Credit Union, Burke said. When a previous financial institution pulled out of the deal, Minster Bank had to find a partner for the line of credit, causing a delay.

"But that's OK. The one thing that we wanted to do was to do it right, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to do it right," he said. "Even though it may not happen this year, it's going to be completed for next year, and it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be great."

Bruns Construction will start moving dirt at the new stadium site next week, Burke added.

"Come Monday, you're going to see equipment out there. They're going to do some grading and some site work to prepare for the lighting and the bleachers to go up."

Weather permitting, lights should start to go up around the middle of August and the bleachers should start to be placed near the end of the month, he said.

"The stands have been partially assembled," Burke said. "Outdoor Aluminum's warehouse is full. They want to get it out of there and get it here to the site to free up some room in their warehouse."

This will be the farewell season for Skip Baughman Stadium. The new stadium should be completed between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, he added.

"The whole project should be finished and ready for track in the spring," he said.

The RPA so far has raised $2 million in pledges and donations but is still short of the project's $3 million goal. Burke said fundraiser Matt Hughes will be in the city later this week to continue soliciting for donations, meeting with several businesses and industries.

The stadium complex will be built east of the high/middle school campus around the existing artificial turf field and will allow the community to comfortably host regular season and playoff games with all the necessary amenities, according to a June news release from the RPA.