John Nickerson
STAMFORD — Movie crews may soon stop clamoring over the city police department’s classic black-barred jail cells — among the oldest in the state — when they are replaced with modern electronic-locking doors in the new headquarters.
The new $43 million, 94,000-square-foot building at the corner Bedford and North streets will also include a gun range featuring moving shooting targets and a state-of-the-art ventilation system. The range will even be large enough to drive in a police vehicle to simulate a street shooting.
Ryan Benoit, project manager for O&G Industries, said his company is on schedule to complete the facility in less than four months.
“We are pushing very hard to meet the schedule,” he said. “We are dealing with some challenges, but we are making it.”
The structure is a palace compared to the 55,000-square-foot old building that can no longer accommodate some police units like the bomb squad and the Special Response Teams that have been working out of different city offices.“This building is not designed to be an architectural masterpiece, but for the functionality of a modern police building for a modern police force. I think it is going to be really great,” Mayor David Martin said during a tour of the new building last week.
“I’m very impressed. I’m happy that it is on budget and on schedule and it is a building without the contamination and allows expansion with a little room to breathe from where we are now. It is a great decision we finally made after 10 years of talking about it.”
The building will feature a spacious lobby with 20-foot ceilings, several interview and meeting rooms, a lounge and new lockers for the 272 Stamford police officers.
“It is terrific for the citizens of Stamford. It is modern-day police department, which is well deserved and warranted,” Police Chief Jon Fontneau said.
Jeffrey Pardo, the city’s construction manager, said the building is deceiving.
“It looks just like a box, but it’s a lot more. It is very sophisticated inside,” Pardo said. “You could walk through and not knowing what you are looking at, you just see sheet rock walls. But when you look into the mechanical systems and everything we have put into this building, we have stuffed a lot of systems into the ceiling to make this work.”
Memorial Boulevard School rennovation set to finish in 36 months
SUSAN CORICA
BRISTOL – The preliminary timeline for the planned transformation of the old Memorial Boulevard School into the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School is 36 months.
Chris Wilson, Board of Education chairman, updated the board recently on the progress made by the city’s committee in charge of the project. Wilson is a committee member.
The architect, Farmington-based Quisenberry Arcari Malik LLC (QAM), estimated it should take about 36 months, Wilson said. “The first 18 months will be involved in doing building site evaluation, educational programming, conceptual design, schematic design, budget design development, construction documents, and finally bidding.”
The second 18 month period will be devoted to the construction itself, ordering furniture, installing technology, etc., he said.
“So at this point, and it’s a very preliminary at this point,” he stressed, “they’re anticipating that we could put that school online in August of 2022. Once they get the construction manager on board they can tighten some of these timelines, but that’s what we’re looking at.”
Board member Jeff Caggiano has asked if the updated school building would be LEED certified. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of environmentally responsible buildings. The Greene-Hills and West Bristol K-8 schools have the LEED Silver certification, which is the second highest of the four certifications.
Wilson said Memorial Boulevard will meet most of the LEED Silver qualifications, but won’t be officially certified because of the cost of having a third party come in and evaluate the building. The cost could be as much as $50,000 or more, he said.
The committee is also in the process of choosing a construction manager for the project, as well as finalizing a contract for the architect, which has been working without a contract so far, he said.
Wilson noted that the Memorial Boulevard project has no connection with his work to get the state legislature to reform the way it funds the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) magnet schools.
When it comes to Memorial Boulevard “the key word is intradistrict,” he said. “It’s just a school within our school district, so that has nothing to do with our magnet school.”
The city wants to renovate the old school building into an arts magnet school for 525 students in grades six through 12, which local students could attend through a lottery system. The renovations will be done with about $56 million in state funding, which represents a 68 percent rate of reimbursement for the project.
The nearly century-old school closed in 2012, and the 90,000-square-foot building has gone unused for several years. The arts and theater magnet school would be home to Bristol’s largest performance theater.
Memorial Boulevard was the city’s high school when it opened in 1922. In 1967, it became a junior high school and then a middle school, until it closed at the end of the 2011-12 school year, as part of a major redistricting in which five aged schools were closed and two large new ones opened.
The building was last renovated in 1978. The 10,000 gallon oil tank was replaced in 2000 and the roof was replaced in 2008. The overall area is listed as 96,524 square feet.
Lamont stands by plan to toll only tractor trailer trucks
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Gov.-elect Ned Lamont says he continues to support tolling only big rigs, despite a new study that shows more money can be generated from wider-ranging tolling.The Democrat said Monday that his position on electronic tolling "is very clear" and his new administration will "focus just on those big tractor-trailer trucks."
Lamont estimates such a move will generate $250 million in revenue. A new Department of Transportation study projects electronic tolls installed on major expressways and parkways for all vehicles would generate $950 million in annual net revenue by 2023, after accounting for operating costs. That study estimates electronic tolling gantries would be installed every 6.6 miles. Connecticut commuters would receive various discounts.
The architect, Farmington-based Quisenberry Arcari Malik LLC (QAM), estimated it should take about 36 months, Wilson said. “The first 18 months will be involved in doing building site evaluation, educational programming, conceptual design, schematic design, budget design development, construction documents, and finally bidding.”
The second 18 month period will be devoted to the construction itself, ordering furniture, installing technology, etc., he said.
“So at this point, and it’s a very preliminary at this point,” he stressed, “they’re anticipating that we could put that school online in August of 2022. Once they get the construction manager on board they can tighten some of these timelines, but that’s what we’re looking at.”
Board member Jeff Caggiano has asked if the updated school building would be LEED certified. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of environmentally responsible buildings. The Greene-Hills and West Bristol K-8 schools have the LEED Silver certification, which is the second highest of the four certifications.
Wilson said Memorial Boulevard will meet most of the LEED Silver qualifications, but won’t be officially certified because of the cost of having a third party come in and evaluate the building. The cost could be as much as $50,000 or more, he said.
The committee is also in the process of choosing a construction manager for the project, as well as finalizing a contract for the architect, which has been working without a contract so far, he said.
Wilson noted that the Memorial Boulevard project has no connection with his work to get the state legislature to reform the way it funds the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) magnet schools.
When it comes to Memorial Boulevard “the key word is intradistrict,” he said. “It’s just a school within our school district, so that has nothing to do with our magnet school.”
The city wants to renovate the old school building into an arts magnet school for 525 students in grades six through 12, which local students could attend through a lottery system. The renovations will be done with about $56 million in state funding, which represents a 68 percent rate of reimbursement for the project.
The nearly century-old school closed in 2012, and the 90,000-square-foot building has gone unused for several years. The arts and theater magnet school would be home to Bristol’s largest performance theater.
Memorial Boulevard was the city’s high school when it opened in 1922. In 1967, it became a junior high school and then a middle school, until it closed at the end of the 2011-12 school year, as part of a major redistricting in which five aged schools were closed and two large new ones opened.
The building was last renovated in 1978. The 10,000 gallon oil tank was replaced in 2000 and the roof was replaced in 2008. The overall area is listed as 96,524 square feet.
Lamont stands by plan to toll only tractor trailer trucks
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Gov.-elect Ned Lamont says he continues to support tolling only big rigs, despite a new study that shows more money can be generated from wider-ranging tolling.The Democrat said Monday that his position on electronic tolling "is very clear" and his new administration will "focus just on those big tractor-trailer trucks."
Lamont estimates such a move will generate $250 million in revenue. A new Department of Transportation study projects electronic tolls installed on major expressways and parkways for all vehicles would generate $950 million in annual net revenue by 2023, after accounting for operating costs. That study estimates electronic tolling gantries would be installed every 6.6 miles. Connecticut commuters would receive various discounts.
The trucking association is currently suing the state of Rhode Island over its truck-only tolls.
Wallingford PZC opens public hearing on BMS property
Lauren Takores
WALLINGFORD — About 25 people spoke at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last week, raising concerns about a plan to level the former Bristol-Myers Squibb campus and replace it with two warehouses.
The concerns include bedrock blasting, noise, traffic safety and well contamination.
Calare Properties, owner of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb campus at 5 Research Parkway, applied for a special permit to build two warehouses and offices on the property. There are no specific tenants slated to move into the property so far.
The PZC held a public hearing on Wednesday. The commission continued the public hearing to its next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 10.
If Calare is unable to find a tenant for the existing building by the end of the year, the company wants to raze all structures on the property and build two warehouses, which would more than double the developed space.
The property is approximately 180 acres, and under the warehouse plan, about 80 acres would be developed. Calare is proposing two warehouse/office buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet. The total square footage of the existing BMS buildings is 915,000.
Calare received a wetlands permit for the project on Nov. 7 from the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, but the plan would require additional local and state approvals.
Neighboring residents’ main concerns are traffic and noise that may be generated from both the construction and the operation of the warehouses, as well as the proposed bedrock blasting.
The entire property is in the Wallingford Watershed Protection District and is 3.5 miles north of Mackenzie Reservoir, which provides the town's drinking water.
Because the developers would need to level the hillside through a cut-and-fill process to build the warehouses on flat land, both blasting and ripping have been proposed for leveling the bedrock.
Residents with property that abuts the site have raised concerns at past Inland Wetlands and PZC meetings about whether blasting would contaminate their homes' water wells.
Calare attorney Dennis Ceneviva and BL Cos. team project engineer Michelle Carlson presented the site plan application to the PZC on Oct. 10, and were present last week.
Ceneviva said that traffic was a key issue the commission members and public raised during the Oct. 10 meeting.
To address the anticipated traffic impact, the town hired CDM Smith, an engineering and construction firm, to perform a peer review on a traffic study submitted by Calare.
Sharat Kalluri, CDM Smith senior traffic engineer, said at Wednesday’s meeting that his team of consultants looked at the proposed warehouse site plan and how much parking was on site.
PZC members raised concerns about the flow of traffic onto Research Parkway, Route 68 and Carpenter Lane during rush hour.
Kalluri said his team didn’t see a lot of issues.
“When the site really gets fully developed,” he said, “whoever the tenant happens to be will probably see some distribution of truck traffic during the course of the day, and it may not be an overlap with the peak traffic that’s on Research Parkway.”
If trucks or other vehicles exit onto Carpenter Lane, there’s a potential for that traffic to pass through High Hill Road, a residential area.
Kalluri said part of the plan is to divert traffic onto Research Parkway and prohibit site-generated traffic on nearby residential streets.
Ceneviva said that although ripping is the proposed leveling method for most of the site, some areas would require some minimal blasting.
Brian Opp, Terracon Consultants geotechnical engineer, said the site was “peppered” with 60 to 70 soil borings.
“We feel that the majority of the excavation is actually going to be by mechanical means,” Opp said. “The contractors should be able to remove the rock with either the bucket of the excavator or a ram attachment,” called ripping.
Blasting “would be a very small percentage,” Opp said, and there are techniques to reduce the impact, such as using a chemical agent to split the rock.
Houses within the 1,500 foot impact zone would have a pre-blast survey and domestic well water quality testing done, he added.
Back to the polls for good cause in Groton
The Day Editorial Board
There can be good reasons to choose to renovate and upgrade older schools instead of demolishing buildings and constructing new facilities. Some older schools feature distinctive and historic architecture that never could be duplicated in new construction. Sometimes, it’s simply much more cost effective to renovate.
In the case of the Groton school building project, however, there are no overpowering reasons to choose renovation over new construction. The residents of Groton are being offered a gift in the form of two brand new elementary schools for the same price as the plan approved at referendum, which calls for retrofitting two middle schools for a new use as elementary schools.
It’s an alternative townspeople should readily accept.
Two years ago, Groton voters approved a $184.5 million school building plan. The plan calls for building a single new middle school to bring all the town’s middle schoolers together to attend classes in a new building near Fitch High School. A second part of the plan is to renovate the two existing middle schools − West Side Middle School on Brandegee Avenue and Carl C. Cutler Middle School on Fishtown Road in Mystic − into elementary schools.
When the state, which is contributing $100 million of the project cost, changed rules to include a cost analysis of the project to determine whether building new elementary schools would be more cost effective than renovating old buildings, state and town officials studied the issue. They concluded the more cost effective approach is to build two new elementary schools on the West Side and Cutler sites and then demolish the older buildings.
While it seems counter-intuitive that the cost of new construction would be the same as renovation, Groton Schools Superintendent Michael Graner said the work of retrofitting buildings designed to serve the needs of middle schoolers for use by younger students is complex. For example, weight bearing walls will need to be removed and new bracing installed to allow the classrooms of varying sizes that served a variety of needs for the older children to now become uniform-sized classrooms for elementary pupils. It can also be trickier to design suitable bathroom space for younger children in existing buildings.
In addition, new buildings are more energy efficient and technology for express use by elementary pupils can be installed more seamlessly. The expected life span of new buildings is longer than that for renovated schools.
There is enough space on the West Side and Cutler sites to allow for new construction to begin a year earlier than planned, thus saving money otherwise needed to address possible increased future construction costs. Graner said delaying construction adds an estimated $2 million to the project.
Groton school officials traveled a difficult road for many years before residents approved the building plan that calls for renovating the existing middle school buildings. It might seem like tempting fate to bring this alternative plan back to the voters. But there is no need for worry. If residents reject the idea of new elementary schools, the original plan to renovate will remain in place and move forward.
The Town Council and Representative Town Meeting already approved bringing the alternate proposal to voters on Dec. 11. Now, school officials face the challenge of convincing a holiday-focused electorate to turn out to support this plan. Most residents likely hoped to put thoughts of going to the ballot box behind them for a while following a turbulent midterm election that in Groton also included a contentious charter change proposal.
Still, the alternative proposal appears to make a lot of sense and will benefit Groton school children for many years into the future. We urge residents to support this school building plan on Dec. 11.
What's next for Dillon Stadium and Hartford Athletic? A turf field, players and more
Shawn McFarland
With the start of the first season of the Hartford Athletic of the United Soccer League underway in just months, work has been progressing at Dillon Stadium to turn the once dormant facility into the headquarters for pro soccer in Hartford. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held Monday for the $14 million project.
“This is one in a series of important days in Hartford and Connecticut history,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said.
The renovation, which includes the installation of a turf field and bleachers seating 5,500, is set to be completed in May. The funds for the project are both private and public, with $10 million approved by the State Bond Commission, and the remaining coming from the Hartford Athletic ($1.5 million), the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving ($1.7 million) and the state Department of Economic and Community Development ($800,000).
As of Monday, much of the turf field had been laid out, while cinder blocks were being placed to support the eventual bleachers. Over the coming months, the team will be signing players and announcing more specifics about the stadium and games. Here’s what fans can look forward to, and where the renovation project stands:
Turf field is a game changer
The field is a synthetic FieldTurf field, and is the first of its kind in North America. It features an organic infill (made of a mixture of silica, coconut husks and cork) and a shock pad, which makes it “safer and cooler” than the traditional turf field across professional soccer.
“This actual turf that you see here is the best turf in the world,” Hartford Sports Group CEO Bruce Mandell said. “As a player — I still play — it’s the kind of turf that you actually want to play on. That’s different from the past, from the old Astroturf that was like concrete. This is something really different.”
A driving factor behind the group’s desire for a turf field was so that it could be used in the community more often. A grass field comes with more limitations, while a turf field can be offered for youth soccer, high school football, and possibly other professional leagues.
“We’re going to attract worldwide competition with rugby, lacrosse and soccer because of that field,” Mandell said.
Early setbacks have been addressed
In the early stages of construction, it was feared that the foundation beneath the stands would be too uneven to build on. Mandell claims that the issue has since been fixed.
“Totally resolved,” he said. “We came up with a new design, we funded it, and we’re ready to go.”
In regards to the extra $4 million that was put into the renovation, Mandell said it was to ensure that the project was done properly, not rushed or haphazardly.
“It’s an 80-year-old site,” Mandell said. “The one thing we wanted to make sure was that we did this right. This neighborhood deserves a real stadium, and the ability to have community use out of it. We didn’t want to come back in five years, 10 years and have to fix things. When we found out that the actual soil beneath some of the stands was so soft, we had to put extra concrete blocks in there to firm it up. That costs a lot of money.”
Come opening day, which is set to be around the second week of May, Dillon Stadium is expected to be able to seat 5,500 fans. However, the stadium is equipped to be able to expand to fit upward of 10,000 if fan interest remains high.
“I want to have a stadium that’s full, exciting with that energy level there,” Mandell said. “And over the years, if we prove it out, we’ll grow it.”
Players are on the way
The team has already made 16 signings — six of which are international players — according to coach Jimmy Nielsen, although their names have not been released. Mandell said he expects those players, and more, to be announced in the next few weeks.
Wallingford PZC opens public hearing on BMS property
Lauren Takores
WALLINGFORD — About 25 people spoke at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last week, raising concerns about a plan to level the former Bristol-Myers Squibb campus and replace it with two warehouses.
The concerns include bedrock blasting, noise, traffic safety and well contamination.
Calare Properties, owner of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb campus at 5 Research Parkway, applied for a special permit to build two warehouses and offices on the property. There are no specific tenants slated to move into the property so far.
The PZC held a public hearing on Wednesday. The commission continued the public hearing to its next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 10.
If Calare is unable to find a tenant for the existing building by the end of the year, the company wants to raze all structures on the property and build two warehouses, which would more than double the developed space.
The property is approximately 180 acres, and under the warehouse plan, about 80 acres would be developed. Calare is proposing two warehouse/office buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet. The total square footage of the existing BMS buildings is 915,000.
Calare received a wetlands permit for the project on Nov. 7 from the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, but the plan would require additional local and state approvals.
Neighboring residents’ main concerns are traffic and noise that may be generated from both the construction and the operation of the warehouses, as well as the proposed bedrock blasting.
The entire property is in the Wallingford Watershed Protection District and is 3.5 miles north of Mackenzie Reservoir, which provides the town's drinking water.
Because the developers would need to level the hillside through a cut-and-fill process to build the warehouses on flat land, both blasting and ripping have been proposed for leveling the bedrock.
Residents with property that abuts the site have raised concerns at past Inland Wetlands and PZC meetings about whether blasting would contaminate their homes' water wells.
Calare attorney Dennis Ceneviva and BL Cos. team project engineer Michelle Carlson presented the site plan application to the PZC on Oct. 10, and were present last week.
Ceneviva said that traffic was a key issue the commission members and public raised during the Oct. 10 meeting.
To address the anticipated traffic impact, the town hired CDM Smith, an engineering and construction firm, to perform a peer review on a traffic study submitted by Calare.
Sharat Kalluri, CDM Smith senior traffic engineer, said at Wednesday’s meeting that his team of consultants looked at the proposed warehouse site plan and how much parking was on site.
PZC members raised concerns about the flow of traffic onto Research Parkway, Route 68 and Carpenter Lane during rush hour.
Kalluri said his team didn’t see a lot of issues.
“When the site really gets fully developed,” he said, “whoever the tenant happens to be will probably see some distribution of truck traffic during the course of the day, and it may not be an overlap with the peak traffic that’s on Research Parkway.”
If trucks or other vehicles exit onto Carpenter Lane, there’s a potential for that traffic to pass through High Hill Road, a residential area.
Kalluri said part of the plan is to divert traffic onto Research Parkway and prohibit site-generated traffic on nearby residential streets.
Ceneviva said that although ripping is the proposed leveling method for most of the site, some areas would require some minimal blasting.
Brian Opp, Terracon Consultants geotechnical engineer, said the site was “peppered” with 60 to 70 soil borings.
“We feel that the majority of the excavation is actually going to be by mechanical means,” Opp said. “The contractors should be able to remove the rock with either the bucket of the excavator or a ram attachment,” called ripping.
Blasting “would be a very small percentage,” Opp said, and there are techniques to reduce the impact, such as using a chemical agent to split the rock.
Houses within the 1,500 foot impact zone would have a pre-blast survey and domestic well water quality testing done, he added.
Back to the polls for good cause in Groton
The Day Editorial Board
There can be good reasons to choose to renovate and upgrade older schools instead of demolishing buildings and constructing new facilities. Some older schools feature distinctive and historic architecture that never could be duplicated in new construction. Sometimes, it’s simply much more cost effective to renovate.
In the case of the Groton school building project, however, there are no overpowering reasons to choose renovation over new construction. The residents of Groton are being offered a gift in the form of two brand new elementary schools for the same price as the plan approved at referendum, which calls for retrofitting two middle schools for a new use as elementary schools.
It’s an alternative townspeople should readily accept.
Two years ago, Groton voters approved a $184.5 million school building plan. The plan calls for building a single new middle school to bring all the town’s middle schoolers together to attend classes in a new building near Fitch High School. A second part of the plan is to renovate the two existing middle schools − West Side Middle School on Brandegee Avenue and Carl C. Cutler Middle School on Fishtown Road in Mystic − into elementary schools.
When the state, which is contributing $100 million of the project cost, changed rules to include a cost analysis of the project to determine whether building new elementary schools would be more cost effective than renovating old buildings, state and town officials studied the issue. They concluded the more cost effective approach is to build two new elementary schools on the West Side and Cutler sites and then demolish the older buildings.
While it seems counter-intuitive that the cost of new construction would be the same as renovation, Groton Schools Superintendent Michael Graner said the work of retrofitting buildings designed to serve the needs of middle schoolers for use by younger students is complex. For example, weight bearing walls will need to be removed and new bracing installed to allow the classrooms of varying sizes that served a variety of needs for the older children to now become uniform-sized classrooms for elementary pupils. It can also be trickier to design suitable bathroom space for younger children in existing buildings.
In addition, new buildings are more energy efficient and technology for express use by elementary pupils can be installed more seamlessly. The expected life span of new buildings is longer than that for renovated schools.
There is enough space on the West Side and Cutler sites to allow for new construction to begin a year earlier than planned, thus saving money otherwise needed to address possible increased future construction costs. Graner said delaying construction adds an estimated $2 million to the project.
Groton school officials traveled a difficult road for many years before residents approved the building plan that calls for renovating the existing middle school buildings. It might seem like tempting fate to bring this alternative plan back to the voters. But there is no need for worry. If residents reject the idea of new elementary schools, the original plan to renovate will remain in place and move forward.
The Town Council and Representative Town Meeting already approved bringing the alternate proposal to voters on Dec. 11. Now, school officials face the challenge of convincing a holiday-focused electorate to turn out to support this plan. Most residents likely hoped to put thoughts of going to the ballot box behind them for a while following a turbulent midterm election that in Groton also included a contentious charter change proposal.
Still, the alternative proposal appears to make a lot of sense and will benefit Groton school children for many years into the future. We urge residents to support this school building plan on Dec. 11.
What's next for Dillon Stadium and Hartford Athletic? A turf field, players and more
Shawn McFarland
With the start of the first season of the Hartford Athletic of the United Soccer League underway in just months, work has been progressing at Dillon Stadium to turn the once dormant facility into the headquarters for pro soccer in Hartford. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held Monday for the $14 million project.
“This is one in a series of important days in Hartford and Connecticut history,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said.
The renovation, which includes the installation of a turf field and bleachers seating 5,500, is set to be completed in May. The funds for the project are both private and public, with $10 million approved by the State Bond Commission, and the remaining coming from the Hartford Athletic ($1.5 million), the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving ($1.7 million) and the state Department of Economic and Community Development ($800,000).
As of Monday, much of the turf field had been laid out, while cinder blocks were being placed to support the eventual bleachers. Over the coming months, the team will be signing players and announcing more specifics about the stadium and games. Here’s what fans can look forward to, and where the renovation project stands:
Turf field is a game changer
The field is a synthetic FieldTurf field, and is the first of its kind in North America. It features an organic infill (made of a mixture of silica, coconut husks and cork) and a shock pad, which makes it “safer and cooler” than the traditional turf field across professional soccer.
“This actual turf that you see here is the best turf in the world,” Hartford Sports Group CEO Bruce Mandell said. “As a player — I still play — it’s the kind of turf that you actually want to play on. That’s different from the past, from the old Astroturf that was like concrete. This is something really different.”
A driving factor behind the group’s desire for a turf field was so that it could be used in the community more often. A grass field comes with more limitations, while a turf field can be offered for youth soccer, high school football, and possibly other professional leagues.
“We’re going to attract worldwide competition with rugby, lacrosse and soccer because of that field,” Mandell said.
Early setbacks have been addressed
In the early stages of construction, it was feared that the foundation beneath the stands would be too uneven to build on. Mandell claims that the issue has since been fixed.
“Totally resolved,” he said. “We came up with a new design, we funded it, and we’re ready to go.”
In regards to the extra $4 million that was put into the renovation, Mandell said it was to ensure that the project was done properly, not rushed or haphazardly.
“It’s an 80-year-old site,” Mandell said. “The one thing we wanted to make sure was that we did this right. This neighborhood deserves a real stadium, and the ability to have community use out of it. We didn’t want to come back in five years, 10 years and have to fix things. When we found out that the actual soil beneath some of the stands was so soft, we had to put extra concrete blocks in there to firm it up. That costs a lot of money.”
Come opening day, which is set to be around the second week of May, Dillon Stadium is expected to be able to seat 5,500 fans. However, the stadium is equipped to be able to expand to fit upward of 10,000 if fan interest remains high.
“I want to have a stadium that’s full, exciting with that energy level there,” Mandell said. “And over the years, if we prove it out, we’ll grow it.”
Players are on the way
The team has already made 16 signings — six of which are international players — according to coach Jimmy Nielsen, although their names have not been released. Mandell said he expects those players, and more, to be announced in the next few weeks.