While the future of the relationship between the City of Laredo and the Tecolotes Dos Laredos remains up in the air, City Council took steps this week to improve the facility where they may play approving an $8.6 million bid for repairs and upgrades. The vote was not unanimous as two councilmembers objected.
District V Councilmember Ruben Gutierrez voted in favor of the project. He acknowledged the high cost but said it was the result of years of neglecting smaller amounts of repairs and renovations that should have been made along the way.
“The City of Laredo dropped the ball when it came to Uni-Trade Stadium, and that is just the fact,” Gutierrez said. “We didn’t maintain it, we didn’t have a management company to take care of it for a long time until recently, and even then there were issues.
“If we were to build it now, it is worth over $55 million. If we had done maintenance of $700,000 to $800,000 per year from the beginning, we wouldn’t have this issue. To let this deteriorate, this building that is worth $55 million now just get worse and worse, is exactly what got us into this problem. Yes, $8.6 million is a lot of money, it certainly is, but the fact of the matter is it’s what’s needed.”
The bid was awarded to Sepulveda Associates Architects Inc., and the work will be performed by Leyendecker Construction of Texas, Inc. The total cost of the project is $8,627,500 which includes several areas of focus.
The biggest cost will be $5.9 million for general modernization of Uni-Trade Stadium with architectural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing enhancements. These include flooring and painting replacement, roofing repairs, kitchen equipment replacement, landscaping and irrigation, canopies, netting around the playground area, new sump pumps, restroom modifications, ceiling and lighting replacements and locker room modifications. Shading for the playground area was considered but was not included due to high cost.
Another significant portion of the cost comes from improving the scoreboards. There will be a new primary LED display replacing the old analog scoreboard, and it will be 40% larger measuring 31 feet by 58 feet. There will also be a replacement of the advertising scrim on the rear of the display, a new double-sided marquee display, a backlit building ID signage and a 10-year parts and labor service contract.
There will also be a new LED display measuring 3 feet by 36 feet on the third base line. The total cost of all the scoreboards and an annual preseason check for them will be $2,108,000. Roberto Sepulveda from Sepulveda Associates Architects Inc. stressed the importance of the upgrades due to the old equipment being difficult to operate and to repair.
“We had consultants come that specialize in this. They reviewed the records and information that has been provided by staff that is maintaining it. There has been a lot of issues in securing parts for the replacement of parts,” Sepulveda said. “They break down. It is old technology. The sun takes a beating on these units. The recommendation was to have it replaced at this time. You can imagine as the years continue, they are going to degrade, and the parts are very hard to find.”
Other technology being replaced will be the video production and camera equipment. The video production system will cost $595,700, and the camera replacement will cost $23,800. The project is expected to be completed by May, but the scoreboards could take longer due to coming from outside the United States.
“The citizens of Laredo are going to see the difference and enjoy it,” City of Laredo Parks and Recreation director J.J. Gomez said. “Once we start the games back up again, we’ll have something that we will see has been updated. That stadium is 12 years old, so it needs some improvements.”
The two votes opposed to the project came from District VI Councilmember Dr. Marte A. Martinez and District VIII Councilmember Alyssa Cigarroa.
“I’m not in favor of this $8.6 million investment, I’m just not. I think it’s quite a bit of money, and it’s our taxpayer money that we’d be investing into this facility,” Martinez said. “It is abysmal the way it currently looks, and I know there are improvements that have to be made, but I think these improvements could be done systematically one at a time over the course of a few months to get them done.”
Martinez was concerned about only having one bidder for the project and how Sepulveda Associates Architects is the only group in Laredo with the bonding capacity to handle a project over $5 million.
“Of course they’re going to be the one that gets this bid, because they are the only ones that can. It got me thinking how can we think outside the box to try to figure out how we can make these improvements but at the same time save some money for the taxpayers,” Martinez said. “That’s what we’re supposed to do. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the tax payers and to the citizens, and right now spending $8.6 million is just ludicrous, especially when materials are as high as they are right now. … This is the absolute worst time in the history of our nation to construct something, and we’re going to get what we pay for. We’re going to get a much higher bill right now.”
Martinez suggested breaking the large project into many smaller ones so other contractors could bid and create competition. However, others cited past examples of similar strategies leading to a higher total cost.
Martinez also objected to the project as a whole saying he would be more comfortable approving the necessary repairs and considering other improvements and beautification projects on an individual basis over the next few years.
“A lot of these projects are wish list projects. A lot of these projects aren’t just things we necessarily have to do,” he said. “If you brought me a list of repairs that needed to be made in order to make this function correctly, and then you brought me a wish list of what we should invest in over the next five years to try to beautify the park and make it the No. 1 park, then this is a no-brainer for me.”
Other councilmembers also voiced concerns but voted in favor of the project. District IV Councilmember Alberto Torres Jr. said the project is needed but that better management is also needed to avoid ending up in a similar situation down the line.
“I can’t stress enough how we have to invest in a good management company,” Torres said. “We have to really invest and dedicate ourselves to maintaining this building, because it is a taxpayers’ building, and $8.6 million is a lot of money for us to put back into this facility. Obviously there is wear and tear, but there is a lot of stuff here that could have been maintained better.
“We wouldn’t be in the situation we find ourselves in today if there would have been better management not only from the independent management company but from the city as well. I hope that once this is completed that we revamp and reevaluate the operational standards of how we’re operating this facility for the public. It is really embarrassing.”
District VII Councilmember Vanessa Perez expressed concern about the city protecting itself from being responsible for damage caused by tenants of the stadium.
“The ice maker had all the dents in it, that’s not wear and tear. An ice maker doesn’t get dents on the side walls and on the front from wear and tear. That’s abuse,” she said. “Why are we having to replace items that would otherwise be operational when the tenants we have in there are the ones utilizing the equipment? What do we have in place to make sure things we are buying and investing in are not getting abused, and what are the consequences for that? We could spend the $8 million then have a tenant come in, and we could have to redo everything all over again, and that is not a smart use of taxpayer monies.”