By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

LUTCHER – St. James High School is on its way to having a new stadium — albeit in a different location — after the St. James Parish School Board awarded a contract for its construction this week.
The bids were originally presented to the board at its last regular meeting, but the matter was tabled.
“There were some issues associated with these,” said Administrative Director of Business Operations Jim Mitchell.
J. Reed Contractors, the company that handled the construction of Lutcher High’s new stadium, put in the low bid for the project at a little more than $3.6 million. The bid also includes concrete and drainage work at the Lutcher High Stadium and expansion of the sewage treatment plant at Paulina Elementary. The contractor has a six-month target completion time for the project.
Construction of a road at the site — located at the intersection of Louisiana Highways 3127 and 20 — has taken longer than expected, but architect Perry Segura said that will not affect the start date of construction for the stadium.
A contract was also awarded to CR Construction for the installation of artificial turf at the St. James High stadium. Although the company had only the second-lowest submitted bid, the low bidder, Mid American Sports, is not an authorized Field Turf installer, so Field Turf would not honor the warranty on the artificial surface if Mid American was allowed to install the turf. CR Construction’s bid was slightly less than $1.85 million. That figure also includes refurbishing the track at Lutcher High School.
The final contract awarded Tuesday was for drainage and dirt work, parking and fencing for St. James High School. Again, the low bidder had to be excluded from the award because the prices detailed in its bid did not add up to the final bid. The contract was subsequently awarded to second-lowest bidder Beverly Construction. Its bid was $937,000.