Included in the estimated $1.16 million project cost is a $175,000 press box. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The home-team bleachers at Red Bank’s Count Basie Park would be replaced at a cost of $1.16 million under a funding request that will be up for public comment next week.
A schematic showing the placement of the bleachers, which would not change. (Click to enlarge.)
The steel bleachers, believed to have been erected in the 1930s, “are definitely showing their age,” interim borough Manager Darren McConnell told redbankgreen by email Wednesday. “The metal seating is damaged in several areas, and we have had to remove sections that were sharp. They are generally not that aesthetically pleasing anymore and the press box is extremely old and outdated.”
Under a proposed application for New Jersey Green Acres funding, the home-side bleachers in the stadium would be replaced with a new structure providing roughly the same number of seats, McConnell said.
The tiers will be closed, not see-thru, McConnell said. Locker rooms will still be provided underneath as they are now. No other facilities are affected by the plan.
The $1.16 million estimated cost includes $125,000 for removal of the existing structure; $575,000 for new bleachers; $175,000 for a new press box; and $100,000 to “retrofit press box and bleachers to existing structure.”
“Due to the high cost of the project, I would say that we will need assistance with funding to make it come to fruition, whether it be from this application or another future funding source if we are not successful on this one,” McConnell said.
Construction, if funded, probably would not occur until 2025, McConnell said.
McConnell said he was unable to estimate how much the sale of the existing steel structure might offset construction costs. “The cost of metal fluctuates so it is hard to say what the value will be at the time of construction,” he said.
Located between Drs. Parker Boulevard and Newman Springs Road, the 14.5-acre stadium and ballfields are owned by the borough board of education, but the town government has a longterm agreement with the schools that “permits us to obtain funding for improvements to the park,” McConnell said.
Separately, Red Bank Catholic High School has a longterm lease to use the football field as its home turf.
In 2022, deteriorating asbestos insulation on pipes was identified beneath the main grandstand in rooms containing a boiler room and an electrical transformer and removed.
A public hearing on the plan is scheduled for the December 14 borough council meeting at 6:30 p.m.
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