The City of Great Bend signed an engineering services agreement with Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) in September of 2016 to design and bid out the replacement of the ball field lighting at Veterans Memorial Park.
The steel poles that cover the north and south softball fields, Al Burns Memorial Baseball Field, and the tennis courts are roughly 50 years old and have become unsafe.
Great Bend City Administrator Howard Partington says although the city would like to replace the light poles all at once, with a price tag of $926,200 the project will be scrapped.
Howard Partington Audio
The City of Great Bend was hoping to put similar lighting at the three ball fields and tennis courts as they did at the Great Bend Sports Complex. Partington says the cost for the lighting at the Sports Complex cost less than $600,000.
Josh Golka, Great Bend on-call engineer from PEC, says PEC was able to conduct nondestructive testing to verify wall thickness and structural integrity on the poles that are either 60 feet or 90 feet tall. Pulling the plug on the project will mean PEC will stop their charge at 60 percent of the original cost of $11,500.
Josh Golka Audio
One of the steel poles collapsed during a storm last summer at the Vet’s South ball field, but no one was using the field at the time. A safety policy is in effect at all the fields for wind speed. If the wind speed gets to 35 mph or higher, play will be delayed until it is deemed safe to be on the field again.
Golka noted staff is working to repair poles on an individual basis by cutting weak sections and welding strengthening plates to the poles.