University of Tennessee Athletic Director Phillip Fulmer will be the special guest at a fundraiser for the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation on Tuesday.
The fundraiser is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, October 29, on Blankenship Field.
Big Ed’s Pizza and cold beverages will be served. The cost is $125 per person, or you can sponsor a table of eight people for $1,000.
[Read more…]The renovated Blankenship Field—the city’s football field—and its walking track are now open for public use.
The main change is that the grass field has been replaced with synthetic turf, but there are other changes as well, including to scoreboards and end zone areas.
The Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department and Oak Ridge Schools announced the opening of the renovated field on Tuesday.
The field and track are accessible through a gate adjacent to the lower concession stand, a press release said. Like other public park facilities, public use is permitted from sunup to sundown, except when the field is reserved for special events, the press release said.
[Read more…]
The high school football season is over, and renovation work started at Blankenship Field in November 2018. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Schools)
A limited amount of sod from Blankenship Field will be available to football fans during a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday afternoon.
Renovations have started at the field, which will be converted from grass to synthetic turf, possibly by the end of April.
The ceremonial groundbreaking will be hosted by the City of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools, and it is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Friday, December 7.
“Football fans will be given the opportunity to take home a piece of sod from the field beginning at 3:30 p.m. Friday,” a press release said. A limited amount of sod will be available at no cost on a first-come, first-served basis. [Read more…]
The high school football season is over, and renovation work started at Blankenship Field in November 2018. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Schools)
The high school football season is over, and renovation work has started at Blankenship Field.
The City of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Schools have both posted photos of the start of the work.
On Wednesday, the City of Oak Ridge said maintenance crews from Oak Ridge Schools were doing preliminary work, including removing irrigation, fencing, and sod.
“Heavy machinery will arrive with the contractors soon,” the city said in a post published on Twitter. “We can’t wait to see the finished product next year!” [Read more…]
Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium are pictured above on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The renovations at Blankenship Field, including the installation of synthetic turf, won’t start until after this year’s football season ends, officials said Thursday.
At one time, there had been hopes that the renovation work would have started this past January and be finished by this June. Then, after an $800,000 contract was approved in June, there had still been the possibility that the work could be complete this summer, on or around the first home football game in August.
But on Thursday, the City of Oak Ridge announced a decision to wait until the Oak Ridge High School football season is complete to begin the renovations.
“The decision was based on the contractor’s estimate that the project could not be completed without impacting the first three home football games,” a city press release said. [Read more…]
Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium are pictured above on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was published at 4:15 p.m. June 19 and updated at 6 p.m. June 20.
The Oak Ridge City Council on Tuesday approved a $800,000 contract to buy and install synthetic turf at Blankenship Field.
Council approved the contract in 5-0 vote during a special meeting Tuesday evening in the Multipurpose Room in the Central Services Complex in central Oak Ridge.
The contract was awarded to Field Turf USA Inc. of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The company has a regional office in Calhoun, Georgia.
The contract says the purchase and installation of the synthetic turf are not to exceed $800,000. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018, will consider an in-kind design agreement for renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider an in-kind design agreement for renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium and $70,000 in funding for renovations for Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division II, which is moving to a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road.
The Blankenship Field design contract would be awarded to Barge Design Solutions of Knoxville. It would be an in-kind donation to the project, valued at up to $50,000, and used to help meet the requirement to have matching funds for a Local Park and Recreation Fund grant awarded to the city by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. That $496,000 grant required a 50 percent local match, which is to come from the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation.
The Barge Design Solutions work would include surveying, civil engineering, landscape design, permitting, and construction administration.
The roughly $1 million project is called the Oak Ridge Blankenship Field Renovation and Trailhead Improvement Project. [Read more…]
The renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium could start in January and be complete by June, officials said Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Photo by City of Oak Ridge)
The renovation work at Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium could start in January and be complete by June, officials said Thursday.
The work will be done with help from a $496,000 state grant and an equal match from the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation, the City of Oak Ridge said in a press release.
“The funds, totaling roughly $1 million, will be used to make a number of upgrades to the facility, including, but not limited to: installation of synthetic turf, concrete walkways, synthetic track, new fencing, signage for the Cedar Hill Greenway trail head, and additional restrooms,” the press release said.
The state grant for the Blankenship Field renovations is from the Local Parks and Recreation Fund, and it has been approved by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
On December 11, Oak Ridge City Council voted to amend an earlier resolution to include all the enhancements specifically outlined within the grant contract. The expected date for project completion is June 1, 2018, the press release said. [Read more…]
University of Tennessee Volunteers Coach Butch Jones, right, is pictured above with Oak Ridge High School Principal Martin McDonald at Blankenship Field on Friday, Sept. 18, 2015. (File photo courtesy Martin McDonald)
University of Tennessee football coach Butch Jones will be the special guest at a July 11 fundraiser for Blankenship Field.
Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally will also be there. So will board members of the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation.
The fundraiser will start at 11:30 a.m. July 11 in the banquet room of the DoubleTree Hotel on South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. Tickets are $100 per person for this buffet lunch, and they include an opportunity to hear from Jones, an event notice said. [Read more…]
An overall view of the proposed renovation of Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium. (File image from April 2015)
Oak Ridge has received a state grant of just under $500,000 that will be used primarily for synthetic turf at Blankenship Field. But it is also expected to help pay for track improvements, upgraded restrooms, fencing between the football field and track, and improvements to the Cedar Hill trailhead behind the visitors bleachers at Jack Armstrong Stadium, city officials said Thursday.
The Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant requires a 50 percent match. The match is supposed to be provided by the nonprofit Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation, and it can be a mix of cash and in-kind contributions, although the precise percentage of each—cash versus in-kind contributions—isn’t clear yet. The foundation has been chaired by Tennessee Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate Randy McNally.
Officials expect to know more after four of them—City Manager Mark Watson, City Council member Rick Chinn, Recreation and Parks Director Jon Hetrick, and Allen Thacker of Oak Ridge Schools—attend mandatory grant training in Nashville in February.
After that, the Oak Ridge City Council could accept the grant, possibly as early as the February 13 meeting. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday unanimously supported a grant application for synthetic turf on Blankenship Field. An overall view of part of the proposed renovation of Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium is pictured in this image from early 2015.
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday unanimously authorized a grant application for synthetic turf on Blankenship Field.
If approved by Tennessee officials, the grant could be worth up to $500,000. It would be matched by the Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation, a nonprofit organization chaired by Tennessee Senator Randy McNally.
The synthetic turf is part of the first phase of a multi-million-dollar proposal to renovate Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium.
Previous work has included replacing the visitors side bleachers and renovating the Broadway Avenue parking lot.
The application approved by City Council in a 7-0 vote on Monday is for a Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The requested grant funding could range between $250,000 and $500,000. The grant requires a 50 percent match. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider applying for a state grant worth up to $500,000 to install synthetic turf at Blankenship Field. Pictured above, Oak Ridge junior wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) hauls in a catch near the left sideline during a 45-6 win over Campbell County on Blankenship Field on Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. (File photo by Julio Culiat)
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider applying for a state grant worth up to $500,000 to install synthetic turf at Blankenship Field. It’s the first phase of a multi-million-dollar proposal to renovate Blankenship Field and Jack Armstrong Stadium.
The application that City Council will consider is a Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The grant requires a 50 percent match, which would be provided by the nonprofit Blankenship Field Revitalization Foundation. The requested grant funding could range between $250,000 and $500,000.
The Local Parks and Recreation Fund, or LPRF, grant provides state funding for parks and recreation development and capital projects, said Jon Hetrick, Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks director. It requires the facility to be maintained as a public recreational facility and open to the public. Grant reports must be filed with the state every five years to document ongoing use as a public recreational facility. [Read more…]
