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No studies on stadium done lately, officials say
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK Correction: Jack Russell Stadium was built in 1955. The story below about stadium inspections gave the wrong age. © St. Petersburg Times, CLEARWATER -- A year and a half ago, the city budgeted $50,000 to hire a structural engineer to review Jack Russell Stadium. The study "was part of providing due diligence in periodically making sure the facility continues to be structurally sound," Kevin Dunbar, the city's parks and recreation director, wrote in an e-mail to former City Manager Mike Roberto obtained by the St. Petersburg Times last week. But the study never happened. Instead, city administrators decided to divert the money to another project: repairing and consolidating the leaking offices of the Philadelphia Phillies and their Clearwater affiliate, which plays in the stadium. The money for the updated engineering review of city-owned Jack Russell -- which has had multiple structural problems during the past decade -- was never restored to the city's budget. On May 30, a slab of concrete collapsed at the stadium while Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton was standing on it, breaking a bone in the commissioner's left foot. Asked about the e-mail and the budget request for the study, city officials last week defended their decision not to pay for the review of the stadium. Dunbar said one reason the structural review didn't make it back into the budget was that city administrators began talking about building a new Phillies spring-training stadium, which made them want to avoid spending a lot on Jack Russell. Dunbar said the review was not requested because of safety concerns, but to help plan projects to improve Jack Russell that had been suggested by the Phillies. "It wasn't that they had concerns that the stadium was going to fall apart," Dunbar said. Interim City Manager Bill Horne said that having a regular inspection plan for any aging public facility would be wise. But he declined to say whether he thinks the structural review should have been done. Based on interviews with city administrators last week, no city department completed any recent inspections of Jack Russell that might have noted deteriorated concrete and steel, which have been blamed for the collapse last week. The city's building and maintenance department has done almost $91,000 in work during the past three years to repair mostly minor problems at the stadium such as leaking toilets, records show. However, General Services Administrator Keith Ashby, who oversees the city's building and maintenance division, said that detecting structural problems was the job of city engineers. Well, not exactly, according to Glen Bahnick, an assistant city engineer. Bahnick said his division is called only when the city's parks and recreation department requests a special review of a problem. Dunbar, who is head of parks and recreation, said there isn't a structural inspection plan for the stadium. The city simply responds when Phillies officials, who are in the stadium every day, notice potential problems, Dunbar said. That's what happened when the Phillies noticed a concrete landing with cracks in it more than a week ago. John Timberlake, the Phillies' director of Florida operations, said the crack "appeared overnight." The Phillies asked the city to send engineers to plan how to repair the problem. But before the area could be shored up, Hamilton stepped past warning tape that circled the area, causing a concrete slab to collapse. Since then, city engineers have pored over the stadium site, assessing the condition of the entire lower seating area, where concrete slabs are supported by masonry walls. Clearwater-based McCarthy and Associates Inc., which has analyzed structural problems at Jack Russell for years, already has produced a preliminary report. Engineer Michael McCarthy sent the city a letter Friday saying that he has determined "many of the precast seating planks have deficiencies and I would not recommend allowing access (to the lower seating area) until the precast can be repaired or shored." The Clearwater Phillies return from a road trip June 18. It is unclear whether some of the lower seating areas, which were closed last week, would be reopened by then. A more detailed assessment of where the concrete planks need to be strengthened with steel is expected as early as this week, City Engineer Mike Quillen said. It's not the first time that the 55-year-old stadium has had problems. In 1993, McCarthy noted multiple concerns, city records show. Among them: corrosion was weakening locations where precast concrete planks attached to steel frames in the upper seating areas. Concrete was chipping. McCarthy told the city that the planks had to be sealed against water penetration to maintain them. Also, steel components needed to be cleaned and painted regularly. A year later, McCarthy did another review. Door frames in walls under the lower bleachers had to be strengthened, he reported. And more important, some steel supports holding the concrete upper bleachers were deteriorated and had to be repaired immediately. Based on McCarthy's plans, a $30,442 emergency project was completed before spring training in 1995, records show. Additional repairs -- about $151,000 worth -- were completed the next year. They included painting all exposed steel, repairing areas where concrete was chipping, plugging leaks, sealing the underside of concrete planks to protect wire mesh inside them and tightening loose steel bolts. McCarthy was back again in 1998, city records show. His firm examined the catwalks used to change light bulbs on the stadium's light poles, finding that they had deteriorated, with rusted, bent or even severed steel supports. One memo from an inspector for the city suggested the catwalks were in bad condition because of a lack of maintenance, having not been painted in six years. Repairs to fix the light poles -- until a new stadium could be built -- cost another $24,000. Then the city's parks and recreation department requested the $50,000 for the structural review of the stadium, in addition to another $300,000 this year to make any repairs that were needed, including possibly replacing the light poles. The $50,000 in 1999 was diverted to the Phillies' office project. Then, because the review wasn't done and a new stadium was being planned, the $300,000 was reallocated to other projects. Mayor Brian Aungst and Commissioner Ed Hart, who were on the commission when city administrators decided to do the office project instead of the structural review, said they didn't remember much discussion of the issue. Aungst said the important thing now is to make sure Jack Russell is safe for next year's spring training. A new stadium is expected to be finished for the 2003 season. "I'm all for precaution and having experts look at it," Aungst said. "That's not an area where you want to save money." PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Stadium safe for baseball games, say engineers Plunge at stadium exposes problems
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