City moves forward with Hellas for sports complex expansion project

The Tahlequah City Council, during an Aug. 14 special meeting, voted to move forward with the expansion project to Anthis-Brennan Sports Complex with Hellas.

City Administrator Taylor Tannehill said Hellas provided a quote to Council that had deductions based on what was discussed during an Aug. 5 meeting. The initial quote included changes; removal of scoreboards and masonry backstop; adding dugouts; lighting for the soccer field moved from an alternative bid to a base bid; and adding fencing back to the proposed batting cages. That total amount was an even $11 million.

It was during that Aug. 5 meeting when Ward 4 Councilor Josh Allen brought up some changes he wanted with removing; landscaping; concession/restroom; ticket booth; shading; and seating and dugouts from the initial bid and open those up to competitive bid for local companies.

During a July 19 meeting, Council initially approved the mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with Cherokee Nation to sell Phoenix Park and received a $7 million donation that would go toward construction of four ball fields.

During that same meeting, Council gave its nod to the negotiation of an agreement with Hellas for the project in which the proposed bid was $11,150,929 for the ball field expansion; $8,698,700 for baseball fields; $2,452,229 for softball fields.

"Hellas has provided a quote with the requested deductions according to the motion at last council meeting. What they removed from the quote was concession and ticket booth, bleachers and shade structures, dugouts; and the landscaping irrigation. That total deduction was $1,354,009 with the total quote of $9,645,991," Tannehill said during the Aug. 14 meeting.

Tannehill added that the recommendation to Council was to put back the shade structures and the bleachers to the bid.

"This may require some discussion, remove the middle shade structure. Each build, once we know the final design of the concession area, and also include a wider sidewalk entrance, a wider gate for maintenance vehicle access," he said.

Ward 2 Councilor Keith Baker asked about adding additional shade structures to the softball fields and Mayor Suzanne Myers asked for clarification if those had been ordered already.

Tahlequah Sports League President Trae Ratliff said they purchased portable shade canopies with funds from a COVID-assistance grant from the Cherokee Nation last year.

"The disadvantage of those is that fact that it covers kind of in between the backstops of fields 1 and 2 and fields 3 and 4, and doesn't really encompass all three sides here. Personally, what I would like to see is kind of a mirror image, the same thing at this new baseball complex and the same thing at the softball complex to create a similar look and feel," Ratliff said.

Ratliff said those portable umbrellas could be placed at the soccer fields, the park and playground, or at the new concession area.

Tannehill referred to Hellas Business Development Director David E. Fisher on if they chose to remove the center shade structure. Fisher said they originally had one structure and the city asked for three structures.

"I would think you could remove the center section and repurpose it at the other fields if you wanted to, I would assume," Fisher said.

Tannehill said they would need to set a limit and allow the mayor to negotiate that in order to move forward since there would need to do additional work on the concrete to the entrance.

"Right now, there's a portion that's six feet that's near the field but the actual sidewalk is five feet and so for maintenance vehicle purposes and really just pedestrian traffic purposes, I think everybody would agree that needs to be a little bit wider than five feet," he said.

Allen asked where they needed to cap as far as money with this expansion project and Tannehill said it all depends what the Council decided. He recommended putting down an amount to get the project moving.

"If you put shade structures and the bleachers back in [the quote], you're at $10,030,251. You would still have your building, your ticket booth, and your sod and I guess dugouts would be on your end but we would be happy with that because those are the two things we're the most worried about that fit it in to our timeline; concrete - all the things that have to go perfectly when you're doing all of that," Fisher said.

Myers said those are things that can be sourced locally and obtain at a reasonable price.

The board decided to authorize the mayor to contract with Hellas for the improvements at Anthis-Brennan Sports Complex for an amount not to exceed $10.1 million.

"Keep in mind, we do still have to wait for the funds from Cherokee Nation but this gives the ability to get a final quote - we'll certainly send it to you guys when we get it - but as soon as those funds are received, we'll tell them, 'Notice to proceed' and carry on," Tannehill said.