Scottie Field Recharged Hosts First Of Many More Community Meetings

The Scottie Recharged Committee held their first of a goal of four community sessions in order to inform the public about the Scottie Recharged project, the need for the project, and the support necessary to make the project come into fruition. According to Glasgow High School athletic director Brenner Flaten, who is also the chair of the committee, the sessions are important to have the community see what the project is about, why the project is needed and be able to ask questions of all levels. "If we can continue to be transparent and up front about the project with everybody as much as possible, hopefully that will help us be successful and make this thing a reality," explained Flaten at the meeting. "We want people to leave here with a better understanding of what we're doing with the project and why we need it."

In addition to Flaten, Jared Petrino, the nephew of longtime Scottie head football coach Pat Petrino, with FieldTurf-Calhoun Manufacturing and U.S. Installation, out of Wyoming, which will serve as the general contractor for the project, and Kris Koessl, 1995 graduate of Glasgow High School, with A&E Design, out of Billings, which will serve as the lead design on the project, were also available to talk about their roles in the project and answer any questions. "We're very excited to have both of these guys here to work.....when you have two people that have ties to the community, everybody see them, recognizes them, that goes a long way. But when you also add on the fact they both have a ton of experience doing this specific work that we're going to be looking at doing, that is what puts it over the top," explained Flaten.

The main goal of the project will be to create an outdoor community use facility that is once again the point of pride for Glasgow. At the time the current Scottie Field was filled and then the all weather track was added, it was in the early 1980s and at that time it was considered a premium facility in northern and eastern Montana. Other goals is to address overcrowding at current public facilities and better handle practice overflow, provide a facility for adult, senior citizens and the whole family, while also creating a community atmosphere by providing access 365 days a year. "I hope the whole community looks at this project and Scottie Field as more than just beneficial for Glasgow High School athletics or Glasgow schools and we look at it more of like a community bowl concept," stressed Flaten.

As explained in the meeting, the project will be broken into three phases, with the first phase being the most important, the track and Scottie Field. This phase will also include new lighting and synthetic field turf. Phase two would be the creation of a softball complex and phase three will be the restroom and ticketing remodel, which as explained during the meeting is the lowest need because there is currently a working facility. However, during the question period at the end of the sessio, questions were brought up why the bathrooms are not in phase one due to their current conditions. The Scottie Field committee will be discussing the potential to add bathrooms to Phase One at their next meeting on April 27.

"The goal of this effort currently is to go for Phase One and the upcoming bond that would be proposed this fall," explained Koessl, Information was provided on the current state of the track and football field, including uneven surfaces, which have resulted in many injuries to athletes. "The existing track and field is too old to be salvaged. And the point I like to make is we all want Glasgow to be a place that people want to live, so of course we want this facility to be a place we're not going to be losing the events that we already have," said Flaten.

At this point in the project, there is no total determined yet on what the bond would ask for from voters as more information and research needs to be done, including a geotechnical study to pull samples from the current Scottie Field to see exactly what contractors and design would be working with. The first priority is to order the study, with the results being returned by mid-June leaving an additional three weeks to determine final project costs before the Glasgow July School Board meeting. If approved by the School Board, the vote would come up to voters during the General Election on Nov. 7.

In the meantime, the School District has not provided any funds for this project, as the funds have come from private donors and the Scottie Booster Club has agreed to help fund the design as well as will be asked on their May 3 board meeting to cover the cost of the geotech survey. The Scottie Field Recharged Committee will also visit with potential Corporate Sponsors to help lower the taxburden on the community.