School board gives architects direction for stadium accessibility

In response to a citizen’s request to add handrails to the east and west side bleachers at H.A. Lynn Stadium, the Newton Community School District had its architectural firm provide additional context to board members about the facility and give them options if they wanted to move forward with accessibility projects.

Rachelle Hines of FRK Architects + Engineers said in the past the district has talked about adding ramps and handrails to the home side of the stadium. The district can make alterations to the existing bleachers so long as they are improving ADA accessibility, as Hines believes they are not currently compliant.

“But they’re grandfathered in because of when they were built,” she said. “So they were built in 1940. They’ve had some minimal improvements along the way.”

Newton Community School District can make some updates to the stadium bring the bleachers up to current code requirements. Ramps would have to be added, stair widths would need modified (and likely lose out on some seating as a result), handrails added and even raised to guardrail height.

Another option would be to get rid of the current bleachers and replace them with new seating, maybe even add new restrooms. Hines said that would be more on the lines of a stadium project. It is an option, but it all depends on how far school board members want her to go to help address the problem.

Currently, H.A. Lynn Stadium can seat less than 1,000 people. Robyn Friedman, chair of the Newton school board, asked Hines if she had a report on the east side bleachers. She said during football games some residents like sitting in other areas that are not on the home side.

Hines said the visitors side was updated to include a press box some time in 2014. But the visitors side is without handrails on the steps. Hines said the district could add those features so long as the steps were wide enough. She said she would meet with a bleacher manufacturer for recommendations.

Or meet with maintenance supervisor Jack Suttek, who, according to school board member Ray Whipple, had recently met with a bleacher manufacturer. School board member Cody Muhs asked if new bleachers were built would they have to all meet ADA requirements.

Hines said, “If you built a new bleacher today, you would have to build it per their requirements for ADA, but that doesn’t mean that every single seat is accessible by, like, a wheelchair, for example. You would have a section that could accommodate that within the bleachers. But there are other requirements.”

Newton Superintendent Tom Messinger said school board members will most likely have to include other areas in the accessibility discussion at some point.

It would likely take a bond to bring all properties in line with ADA accessibility. Messinger said, “There are going to have to be some priorities that are set, but we want to begin talking about what some of those different possibilities are because also maybe we can start to tackle some of these things as we go.”

School board member Kristi Meyer asked Hines to point out some of the most inaccessible areas of the high school. Hines said a handful of restrooms are inaccessible but there are others that are accessible. Accessing the balcony of the gym is difficult by wheelchair, as are some classrooms on the highest level.

In the past, the board has talked about adding elevators to the high school. Hines asked if it made more sense to talk about future needs within the district as a whole as opposed to just talking about specific projects. She said knowing where the district wants to be in the next decade will help in making that decision.

“We want to make sure whatever kind of investment we do for that building — including an elevator — makes sense to where we put it and that it best works with how it is going to be used in the next 10 years,” Hines said. “…Maybe we need to reengage and have a conversation about the high school master plan.”