With Andalusia’s first home football game only 24 days away, crews with Wyatt Sasser Construction are working to put safeguards in place to make the stadium usable before construction is completely finished.
Last month, the Andalusia Board of Education approved a “Plan B,” that includes building temporary, handicapped accessible sidewalks to the two entrances that will be used until the facility is completed.
Brian Ray, who is overseeing the project for Wyatt Sasser Construction, said fans can enter the stadium beside the auditorium, or on the visitors’ side by the field house.
“We have had lots of calls asking if the stadium will be ready,” he said. “We will play football. But we want people to know it’s not going to be finished. They need to watch their kids and make sure they stay away from the fenced-off areas.”
The new concession in the field house is expected to be in use, but the concession stands in the base of the pressbox and in the plaza will not be ready. Superintendent Ted Watson said the state building commission inspector has said if concessions are offered in the field house (visitors’ side), concessions also must be offered on the home side. It is expected a vending trailer will be used on the home side for the beginning of this season.
The old bus barns on the bypass side of the field recently were torn down to make way for visitor parking. Additional lighting will be added at the entrance on the home side of the stadium. And in the next 24 days, aluminum seats will be added to the home bleachers, and the new grandstands also are expected to be in place.
The base for new video board is in place, and the board should be delivered today or Wednesday.
Andalusia’s first home game will be Aug. 31.
An average of 143,767 consumers shop in the local market more than once per month.
But they don’t spend all of their disposable income here, which leaves room for additional retailers, and for local retailers to grow their businesses.
That’s the “gap analysis” message Casey Kidd of NaviRetail delivered to about 25 local business people who attended a seminar at the Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning.
The City of Andalusia and the Chamber partnered with NaviRetail to provide retail analytics and consulting services for effective retail recruiting strategies. The Memphis-based economic development agency specializes in using data analytics for retail recruitment. Thursday’s workshop was designed to help locals understand the demographics and mindset of those who shop here.
Kidd said his firm used data from cell phones and credit card use to determine Andalusia’s retail trade area. It stretches from Enterprise to Greenville, Evergreen, Brewton and Florala. And those consumers spent $1.2 billion in other markets.
“The goal is to recapture that,” Kidd said. “If they’re having to go somewhere else to buy, you need to be selling that product.”
Data showed that the average household income in the trade area is $54,428, with an average disposable income of $44,557.
“In Mississippi, we would kill for this,” Kidd said. “These are big numbers, especially for a small town. These consumers have money to spend, they just can’t spend 100 percent of these dollars in Andalusia.”
In addition to demographics, the company pulls psychographics, to determine how customers spend money. They looked at 67 total segments of retail.
Local consumers are much more concerned with cost than quality, he said. Read More>
Two utilities improvement projects will also mean improved street conditions, the Andalusia City Council learned Thursday.
In a previous meeting, the council agreed to pursue grant funds to help with a major paving project in the city. But Thursday they learned that many of the streets fall in areas where utilities improvements are planned in the next 12 months. And those plans call for resurfacing streets, Tim Glisson of the Andalusia Utilities Board said.
The first project, which currently is under way, includes improvements to water mains and sewerage services in the following areas:
2nd Street (8th Ave. – Oak Street)
3rd Street (8th Ave. – Oak Street)
Oak Street (#rd Street to College Street)
8th Street (2nd Street – 3rd Street)
9th Street (2nd Street – 3rd Street)
Mayor Earl Johnson said that in this project and a second, larger project, plans include paving the portions of the streets where utilities work is being done.
The second project is part of a long-term, two-part plan to extend the life of the city’s sewerage treatment plant. The project will repair sewerage lines in the south part of the town known as the south basin. On rainy days, rain water seeps into the sewerage lines, greatly increasing the water flowing through the sewerage treatment plant.
The project involves lining the existing sewerage lines with a material to prevent leaks. But in places where the lines have collapsed, the lines will be dug up and replaced. Once that work is done, the streets will be repaired, Johnson said.
The second project has not yet been bid, but is expected to include Simmons Street, Jackson Street, Rankin Street, Riley Street, King Street, Auburn Avenue, Carlton Street, and Little Street.
The project is expected to be bid in the fall, and work will likely begin in 2019, Johnson said.
The council agreed to pursue funds for a smaller paving project that will address streets not included in these projects
Intense training seeks to prepare LEOs for active shooter situations
Andalusia Police Chief Paul Hudson said that he hopes school resource officers will never have to use the skills they learned at a three-day course held in Andalusia, but if they do, they will be properly trained.
Representatives of several law enforcement agencies from across the state came together to take part in a school resource officer course to train on how to act during an active shooter situation.
“A lot of these guys don’t get a lot of range training to teach them proper ways to tend to an active shooter situation,” Hudson said. “It is geared towards school resource officers, but any officer can take the course.”
Over the past three days, officers have been put through room entry situations, live fire drills on the range and being immersed in an active shooter situation in which they used SIM guns, which Hudson said looks like a real gun and fires like a real gun, but shoots paint balls. Alen Willis from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department said that he participated in the course to get better training.
“We need to get this training so we can protect our students and teachers,” Willis said.
Michael Bishop from the Covington County Sheriff’s Department said that with this type of training, they learn more.
“It is intense,” Bishop said. “When you are put in a real life situation, I think you learn more, it’s a lot better than just looking at a piece of paper in a classroom. If you aren’t training, then kids are dying, so that is why we are doing this.”
Retired law enforcement officer Curt Carpenter, who has been running these types of courses for 10 years, said that it is important to immerse officers in real life situations to increase their knowledge of all their skills.
“It is important that these officers have a high skill set,” Carpenter said. “So we put them in the heat, with their adrenaline pumping and make them think on their feet. It builds their confidence up and gives them the opportunity to perform under stress.”
Officers from Greenville Police Department, Andalusia Police Department, Covington County Sheriff’s Department, Coffee County Sheriff’s Department, River Falls Police Department, Escambia County Sheriff’s Department, Montevallo Police Department and Thomasville Police Department all participated.
Additional ramps will allow use before project is compete
The Andalusia Board of Education on Monday authorized the construction of ADA-compliant ramps that will allow the use of the renovated Andalusia High School stadium before the construction project is completed.
Superintendent Ted Watson explained to board members that the field is ready, and the team is already practicing on it.
“We can play a game there, but we can’t let anybody come and watch it if we don’t do this,” he said.
Board members have long known that the new press box would not be completed before the season began, and a workaround had already been established to allow rest of the stadium to pass the state building commission’s inspection allowing use of the venue.
Now, Watson said, with several rain delays and delays in shipment of red iron, Wyatt Sasser Construction also does not expect the plaza to be completed by the first home game, which will be the second game of the season on Fri., August 31, against Trinity Presbyterian.
Watson said ramps will be built from the parking lot routing spectators to gates on the side of the stadium, and near the new field house.
“I don’t know any way around it to guarantee we can play football on the 31st,” he said.
The ramps, which were priced at $28,295, are expected to be needed until the fourth home game of the season, when the Bulldogs host Opp on Sept. 28.