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Punxsutawney’s LaMarca Stadium to Get $2 Million Facelift

Editor’s note – This story originally appeared on our sister site, ExploreJeffersonpa.com.

By Scott Shindledecker

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — Punxsutawney’s Jack LaMarca Stadium is getting a facelift.

By a narrow 5-4 vote, the Punxsutawney School Board recently approved a $2 million project that will provide for the building of a 3,900-square foot field house, new handicap accessible routes, new bleachers for home and away fans, lighting, scoreboard, public address system, fence, and a service panel.

The field house will contain locker rooms, a concession stand, restrooms, and a small changing area for officials.

There are no current plans for showers in the field house.

6:14:16 lamarca concession stand

School Board President Penny Pifer said having locker rooms in the field house is a matter of having adequate space for the cross country, track and field, and boys and girls’ soccer teams to have space to change if the football team is using the locker rooms in the high school.

Pifer also explained that $1 million was set aside to pay for the stadium renovations and that the additional money would come from the fund balance, which is about $7.8 million, according to information on the school district’s website.

“We are hoping it won’t quite cost that, and we think we can save some money on decreasing the size of the bleachers, especially on the away side,” Pifer said.

As for the bleachers, there are concerns about the spacing between the seats.

6:14:16 lamarca stadium scoreboard

“There were concerns about the spacing, that small children could fall between the gaps. There are some things there that are not up to code,” Pifer said.

While many board members were concerned about the cost of the project, concerns about the future costs to do such projects were enough incentive to go ahead with the plans.

 

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