Best seats at the home of the Pirates still off limits

FANS PLANNING TO watch the Port Pirates’ home-opener against rival Grafton Friday will find the central section of the home bleachers remain cordoned off because of problems with the footings that support the stands in that area. The problem was detected shortly before the beginning of last year’s football season and has not yet been fixed. Photo by Sam Arendt
For a second year, some of the best seats for Pirates fans will be off limits when the Port Washington High School football team plays its first home game of the season on Friday, Aug. 25, against the Grafton Black Hawks.
The center section of the home-team bleachers on the east side of the field remain cordoned off because erosion has exposed three footings supporting that area of the stands and need to be replaced.
The problem was discovered shortly before the beginning of last season by a contractor designing a ramp for people with disabilities, and at the time Interim Supt. Mel Nettesheim, who was then director of business services, said the district hoped to have the bleachers fixed before the end of the 2022 football season.
Repairs, however, have yet to be made, and Nettesheim said last week that is because of the cost of the fix and the fact the district continues to analyze and prioritize both outdoor and indoor improvements, a process it was working on last year at this time.
“The repair is pretty significant,” she said. “And we’re examining this as part of the larger needs in the district.”
The cost of replacing the footings ranges from $68,000 to $200,000 “depending on how permanent we want it to be,” Nettesheim said.
Replacement of the bleachers is estimated to cost between $650,000 to $850,000, she said.
Nettesheim said the bleachers are safe and inspected regularly by structural engineers.
“We continue to monitor them,” she said.
District officials have long talked about the need to replace the aging bleachers, which were part of a plan to overhaul outdoor Port High athletic facilities at a cost of nearly $8 million.
That plan, which became a focus of the district shortly after the approval of a $49.4 million referendum in 2015 that did not include money for outdoor athletic facilities, called for artificial turf football and baseball fields, an eight-lane running track, a new concession stand and restrooms, an access road and handicap-accessible football field bleachers.
The district was counting on the PWSSD Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to benefit the school system, to raise the lion’s share of the money for the improvements, but that didn’t happen and the only project that was completed was the football field. That project was financed primarily by the district using proceeds from the sale of land.
The district has since commissioned a new study — this one of all outdoor facilities in the district as well as the District Aquatic Center at Thomas Jefferson Middle School — and is awaiting recommendations from Rettler Corp., a Stevens Point landscape design and architectural firm, that will be based in part on the results of community surveys conducted earlier this year.
Rettler conducted a similar study for the City of Port Washington in 2021.
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