By TIM GEARHART

For The Ironton Tribune

COAL GROVE — A $1 million upgrade to Lemaster Stadium at Dawson-Bryant High School in Coal Grove is nearing completion.

When finished over the next week home Hornets fans will have a new 1,570 seat high rise grandstand with wider seats, more leg room and new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) spaces with benches for companions integrated into the same seating area.

A new 480 square foot press box that can seat 18 coaches, announcers, spotters, radio broadcasters and reporters will top off the new seating structure that covers a wider area than the 50 year old bleachers being replaced.

Contract for the project was awarded by the Dawson-Bryant Board of Education to Dant Clayton, Louisville, Ky., specialists in stadium seating. The exact total is $1,028,500.

Coal Grove Dawson-Bryant Superintendent Ellen Adkins said the project is being funded with local funds.

“The stadium bleachers are being paid for from local resources that we’ve been gradually setting aside for many years in anticipation of this expense,” she said.

“The bleachers (being replaced) were over 50 years old,” Adkins said. “Hopefully the new ones will last another 50 years.”

The project started at the end of the last school year when the old bleachers and press box were dismantled and removed.

Paul Riedinger, a designer at Dant Clayton’s Westerville, Ohio, office, said that while new support posts were being constructed on Lemaster Field the new heavy duty I-beam bleachers were being pre-fabricated at the company’s headquarters in Louisville.

In mid-July the first shipment of those supports arrived in Coal Grove and assembly began with a sub-contract crew from Piketon, Ohio. A small crane was used to lift the pieces into place where they were bolted down.

Riedinger said the new grandstand will have deeper treads and a higher rise that the previous bleacher, meaning fans will have more leg room and a better view of the field.

“The stand will also include ADA spaces and benches for companions that are integrated in the same seating area as the other patrons,” Riedinger said. “We have simplified the access to and from the stand to make it simpler and safer, featuring a continuous front aisle.”

The new James T. “Moose” Dutey Press Box is also being built in Louisville and when ready will be trucked to Coal Grove and lifted into place by crane. Access to the new press box will be from the rear via a stairway rather than from the seating side.

“The new press box is a 480 square foot state-of-the-art box,” Riedinger said. “The press box will include three separate rooms and will allow seating for up to 18 people,” he said.

In addition, there will be a 250 square foot rooftop filming platform that will be perched high above the field.

This project comes on the heels of other major improvements at the high school. Prior to last football season new visitor’s locker rooms were built as was a sports training facility. This season football locker rooms at the Middle School are being upgraded with new flooring and lockers.