Charles Oliver
Dalton Daily Citizen
DALTON —
That’s going to change soon, however.
Mayor David Pennington said the city’s main soccer fields are “down to sand” and need to be replaced, so city officials are going to resurface those fields as well as build two new dual purpose football-soccer fields at James Brown Park.
“We have a shortage of soccer fields. You’ll see kids out playing on baseball fields and other places, but we need football fields, too, and this is the way to go,” Pennington said.
That project is scheduled to go out for bids today, and the bidding process will be open until June 24, according to recreation department director Ronnie Nix.
Nix said the estimated cost of the project is about $1.5 million.
“That’s not just the field,” he said. “That includes concessions, rest rooms, fencing and lighting (at the new fields). The whole thing.”
Nix said he expects the work on those fields to start some time in July and be finished by this fall.
The project will be paid for from the $5.6 million bond issue the Dalton City Council approved in April.
In addition to those fields, a fifth soccer field will be built as part of the rebuilding of the Dalton Community Center on Fredrick Street. The council approved a $4.383 million bid from Headley construction of Newnan in April for that project. Nix said the site preparation for that project is almost complete and construction could begin as early as the middle of June.
The community center project will be funded from a number of sources including the bond and federal community development block grant money.
