North Side and South Side high schools to get new football stadiums

JACKSON, Tenn. — Jackson’s North Side and South Side high school football stadiums were built almost half a century ago.

“We’ve had structural engineers to evaluate these things. They’re safe currently, but they’re in a mode of degrading, and so we’re trying to get ahead of the curve and get them safe before it gets to a point where they’re not safe to be sitting on,” Director of Maintenance and Operations for Jackson-Madison County Schools Allen Powell said.

So, the school system has decided to say good-bye to the almost identical stands at the schools.

“The current stadiums will be demolished, so they will be completely torn down,” Powell said.

The district says they plan to put steel-based stadiums in their place. However, that’s not the only plan for the construction.

“At North Side, we have some of the drainage on the field, culverting, that has degraded,” Powell said.

They’ll be repairing the field there, and making minor improvements to South Side’s field.

“The coach is very satisfied with his field at South Side,” Powell said.

School officials say they want to have these problems fixed by the time the teams hit the field in the fall of 2019.

“I told both football coaches that once you get into a project, there may be things that arise, so be smart and schedule your first games away just in case,” Powell said.

On Tuesday, the Madison County Commission approved more than $1 million for the project.

“The entire estimated cost for both projects that we’re going to combine into one bid is $3 million,” Powell said.

The school system will start taking construction bids on Jan. 29. If the budget allows, they also want to build a new ticket box and concessions stand combination at both schools.