By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
They make look fine, but they don't work well.
Jeff Boyle, Hays parks director, told Hays city commissioners Thursday night there are lots of complaints about the 10-year-old wireless baseball and softball field scoreboards at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex.
"The internals on the scoreboards aren't functioning properly - the digits are just constantly going out - and the controllers haven't functioned properly for years," Boyle reported. "We've kept on buying new controllers and batteries but made sure our bid proposals were for hard-wired so we didn't have these issues again."
Commissioners unanimously approved the low bid of $79,905 from Daktronics, Brookings, S. Dak., for new 8 ft. by 14 ft. hard-wired scoreboards.
Boyle noted employees have installed electrical outlets in all eight ball field backstops to reliably charge the controllers.
The scoreboards will be paid for this year using the sports complex sales tax reserve fund which will be reimbursed in 2022 from the special park and recreation budget.
The scoreboard design includes a two-foot high sponsor panel at the top.
Not only will the top panel identify each ball field, it also adds an opportunity for the city to sell sponsorships on each scoreboard.
Boyle said he and Roger Bixenman, Hays Recreation Commission superintendent, have been discussing how much to charge and the possibility of combining sponsor contracts at the Hays Aquatic Park.
"For example, if we could get a thousand dollars per panel per year over a 10 year period - so that we're not changing the panels out - that will have paid for the scoreboards," Boyle said.
He thinks the scoreboards likely have a bigger impact than banners or sponsor signs at the swimming pool.
"Every time you look at the scoreboard, you're seeing the advertisement, so it's a little more visible. I think we have a little more room to play with."
"Right now they say you play at Field 1," added Shaun Musil, commissioner.
"I talked to a couple businesses. They said if you were at that field, you know it's so-and-so's field, so they be interested making sure you're advertising you're at "Sandy Jacobs Field" or something like that," Musil said.
There may also be an option of offering a combined sponsorship package with signs on the new shade shelters that will be installed this spring at the sports complex.
Boyle said he has confirmed with Daktronics the sponsor/field name panels can be added after the scoreboards are installed.
Commissioners also approved the $200,136.36 low bid from T&T Builders, Hays, for installation of the ARC Park parking lot in Seven Hills Park, 33rd and Hillcrest.
The city will use a portion of its share of the Ellis County sales tax to pay for the concrete parking lot.
The required minimum number of handicapped parking spaces at the accessible facility is two. Boyle said the design calls for seven handicapped parking spots in the 46-stall lot.
Work on the parking lot is scheduled to begin the second week of April.
In other business, commissioners:
* Approved an ordinance authorizing the issuance of $6.48 million in general obligation bonds to Robert W. Baird & Co., Milwaukee, Wis., to pay for the city's share of the North Vine Street Improvement Project. The debt service will start in 2022 and be paid from the additional two percent Transient Guest Tax (TGT) that went into effect Oct. 1, 2018.
* Approved a low bid of $239,693 with Midlands Contracting, Kearney, Neb., for CIPP (Cure In Place Pipe) lining of approximately 10,000 linear feet of sanitary sewer
* Approved the low bid of $104,474 from Stamm Manufacturing, Fort Pierce, Fla., for a new aerial platform lift truck for the Public Works Department
* Heard the February Progress Report of city departments
* Reappointed Albert J. Klaus to the Hays Housing Authority