By WAYNE ALLEN

PDT Staff Writer

The Wheelersburg school board on Thursday awarded two contracts, valued at $3.2 million, to renovate Ed Miller Football Stadium.

Mullins Construction of Wheelersburg was awarded a facilities project contract, which calls for new home bleachers, press box, field house, concession stand and public restroom facility.

The other contract will replace the current grass football field with turf. The company Field Turf USA was award the contract.

The Board of Education has had to reject all bids two other times. Each time the bids were more than 10 percent over estimate. When that occurs the district is required by law to reject them.

“The third time we are going to be OK. Each time we’ve gone back to the plans and tried to make some adjustments to get everything within budget. With market conditions and some of the changes we made, we were able to get what we feel are some good bids,” Knapp said.

Knapp said the stadium renovation is part of a master facilities plan to get all of the district’s facilities onto one campus.

He said the funding for the project is coming from a variety of source.

“We are paying for this through a combination of permanent improvement funds and community donations,” Knapp said.

He said the the Wheelersburg Athletic Association has played a key role in making the project a reality. Association representatives presented the board on Thursday night with a check for $20,000 to go toward project costs.

Knapp said all of the work should be completed before the start of football season.