Chester Willis field renovations moving toward new phase

Published 11:23 am Tuesday, October 3, 2023

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NATCHEZ — Joseph Furr, the Baton Rouge landscape architect in charge of renovations at Chester Willis Field, presented an update on work at the field to Adams County supervisors at the board’s Monday meeting.

“Things with the field are moving along well. We are about to enter into the second phase of the project,” he said.

Furr presented a minor change in how the group planned to acquire lighting and installation of those lights for the project.

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“In an effort to be prudent, we have decided to make a direct purchase for sports lights from Musco Sports Lighting as a sole source vendor and will bid out the installation of those lights separately,” Furr said.

The project called to bidding out the purchase and installation of lighting. However, out of caution in following state purchasing and bidding guidelines, all agreed the best route was separating the two.

Cost of the lighting from Musco will be $260,000. Installation of the lighting is expected to be another $240,000 or so.

“The next phase of the project will be getting bids for bleachers,” Furr said. “The bleachers that are there are dangerous and are passed the end of their life. We will also then do a couple of other bids for cleaning and painting the structure and some of the paving that needs to be done…We are conscious of being as cost effective as we can for the county. We seek it to be as inexpensive as possible and give you the best bang for your buck, while giving you a quality product.”

Furr encourages supervisors to visit Chester Willis Field and see the work that has been done to date.

“The field is looking really good. I think you will be proud of it,” he said.

Nathan Stubbs at NK Stubbs Contractors is general contractor on the project, which has a total cost of approximately $2.5 million.