Apollo's Owens Field, the Alle-Kiski Valley's oldest football stadium, will get a facelift this spring and summer.
First opened in 1919, the renovations will ensure that high school football will be played at Owens Field well into its second century. The first season coincided with the original Apollo High School's entry as a WPIAL member.
The school district Monday voted to begin requesting bids on the facility, which recently has been showing its age.
Officials expect the project, slated to begin in early May, will be finished toward the middle of the 2010 football season.
Apollo-Ridge will open the season at Indiana Area. But a Week 2 home game with Washington might be moved to Leechburg Veterans Stadium. Early indications are that Leechburg will approve the request and help out their neighbors.
Apollo-Ridge's first night at their new digs looks to be Sept. 24 against Deer Lakes. In case the locker rooms aren't done, the school won't have another home game until Oct. 15 against Shady Side Academy.
Originally, the school district considered either modernizing Owens Field or building a new stadium at the high school campus in Kiski Township, about 5 miles away.
But tradition prevailed and the decision was made to stay in Apollo, where the field is within walking distance for a number of Vikings fans.
The project, which will cost between $3.1 million and $3.5 million, will include new grandstands on the home and visitors sides, new concession stands, a revamped press box, a gravel walkway around the grid, new lighting, new public restrooms and a full-service locker rooms for both teams.
The field itself also will be leveled. It is currently tilted toward one side.
The new stadium will seat a little more than 1,800 fans, with plenty of standing room at field level.
One thing not included in the package is a new scoreboard. That will likely be handled by the Owens Field Boosters Club, originally formed to renovate the old facility.
"The new plans look nice; I'm very impressed," said Debbie Stewart, secretary of the boosters club.
The group, which has raised about $17,000, will decide Thursday what that money should be geared toward. The stadium boosters, under club president Harry Jaworskyj, will meet at 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.
The last potential roadblock to the project has been cleared.
Apollo Borough officials, as part of a project to separate stormwater drainage from the sewer lines, said the sewage from the restrooms and locker rooms will be part of the Sugar Hollow Road lines. The main line along Route 56 will accommodate Kiski Township homes close to the borough boundary.
