The Durant Community Facilities Authority in a meeting last Friday approved a final round of projects from sales tax revenue from a tax passed 20 years ago that expired in September.
The half-cent city sales tax was originally approved in 2004 to fund the Multi-Sports Complex and Southeastern facilities and was due to expire in September. In February, voters approved renewing the tax for 25 years but this time, it will be used to maintain and improve infrastructure in the city.
Revenue from the prior tax will still be coming in for the next couple of months, according to An-Chen Lai, the city’s finance director and treasurer.
Currently, the city has $764,230 from these funds and it is estimated that the city will receive approximately $106,000 each month for two months.
Ryan Brewer, parks and recreation manager for the city, said he went with the priority level for projects that include shade structures for the stands. Scoreboards are needed for at least four of the baseball fields and also a new one for the football field.
“It will be on the south side (of football field) where there’s not so much glare in the middle of the day when the youth football actually plays,” Brewer said.
According to Brewer, a mini excavator is need for the sprinkler systems and lines at the park and the air conditioning units need to be replaced in the concession stands. He also would like to double the amount of soccer fields and goals.
“With the soccer program growing as much as it is, we need to get more fields out there sooner rather than later,” Brewer said. “This will also help with the wear and tear of the turf grass, so not everyone’s playing on the same field all the time.”
He also said portable bleachers are needed and he has asked for them for a couple of years.
“Right now, we’re in the running for the National Rugby Sevens Tournament that’s going to take place in March 2025 and then more national championship tournaments in 2026,” Brewer said. “It’s a total of four tournaments and one of the stipulations they have to have is bleachers at each of the field sites. Right now, we don’t have that. So, getting those portable bleachers so we move them in for rugby or any big event and then be able to move them off the field whenever we don’t have anything going.”
The press boxes need to be refurbished and the PA systems don’t work, according to Brewer, and fixing all of this would allow streaming capabilities for the big events.
“For football, we have tournaments twice a year,” Brewer said. “We have Special Olympics. We are hosting all these events on our football field. Getting it where more people can watch and weekly games and do the same thing for baseball and softball as well.”
Blake Allen, associate athletic director for Southeastern Oklahoma State University, said the university wants to install a new fence around Paul Laird Field, and also Tailgate Alley that is adjacent to the football field, with the remainder of funds helping to offset turf replacement at the field.
SEPresidentThomasNewsomsaid the fencing at Tailgate Alley would allow concerts and other events to be held there.
“The reason why we need the fence is because without the fence there now, we have to do a lot of work to keep people from thinking it’s just a parkinglotandthefencewoulddefine the space so that it could be usable year round,” Newsom said.
The DCFA board approved the following: - Installation of shade structures for fields six and seven softball field stands at the Multi-Sports Complex at a cost up to $116,321.
- Purchase of scoreboards for the complex at a cost of $76,000.
- Purchase of mini excavator at a cost of $37,850.
- Purchase of air conditioning units for baseball and football concession stands at the complex in the amount of $6,500.
- Purchase of additional soccer goals, nets and transportation kits for the complex in the amount of $50,000.
- Purchase of four sets of portable bleachers and transport kit in the amount of $50,000.
- Awarding $20,000 for renovation of press boxes at the complex.
- Approved spending $163,877 for construction of fencing at Paul Laird Field and adjoining Tailgate Alley.
The cost to replace the turf at Paul Laird Field is $708,855 and the board voted to award remaining funds in the amount of $193,123 toward costs for that project.
Newsom said many of the funds from the tax have been spent on facilities at the Southeastern campus.
“All of those facilities are used by our community,” Newsom said. “The arena is something we should all be proud of that is used significantly by our community. Paul Laird Field has been a field that we’re proud to host not only our athletic teams on but Durant High School’s athletic teams on. These improvements are going to make it even more attractive and more usable for our community and we’ve already seen some significant benefits in our video board that this group helped fund and we appreciate that.
“I just want to say thank you. This has been a very, very successful project over the years. It’s not only changed our university but has definitely made a significant, positive impact on our community and I just want to thank you all for that.”