A weight and wrestling room renovation project will head out to bid in Palmerton Area School District following a 6-3 board of directors’ approval Tuesday night.

The renovation will include the addition of a team locker room for wrestling and separate boys and girls shower facilities, among other improvements.

Randy Galiotto of ALLOY5 Architects said the latest updates to the plan include reducing the amount of showers in each locker room from 7 to 5 after it was discovered the water line running from the high school to the building, located under the home side bleachers of the athletic stadium, was 1.5 inches instead of 2 inches.

Voting against the revised drawings were directors Earl Paules, Danielle Paules and Erin Snyder.

Earl Paules said he had an issue with the building layout and the amount of water and sewer line that would have to be run to match the current drawings.

“I’m not trying to stop the project, I just think we should put everything on the other end of the building where the water and septic is already,” Earl Paules said of his no vote. “I’m looking toward the future and I think we’re going to run into problems that will cost this district more money than we can even imagine. If we have a water line running all the way to the other end and we have a leak, now you’re ruining all kinds of weight room stuff and everything else instead of isolating the problem.”

Galiotto said he heard all of the concerns and appreciates Paules’ desire to keep change orders to a minimum.

“I still think the best option is to put the locker rooms anywhere, but come out with a new line and tie into the existing line outside of the building,” he said. “That is one of the options here.”

In March, district officials estimated the cost of the project at $375,000 for general construction and $120,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. That estimate, however, was before the two showers were eliminated.

Palmerton has kicked around the design of the renovated facility for months, with some directors saying Tuesday night they are ready to see things move forward.

“At what point does this end,” board member Brandon Mazepa said. “It has almost been a year since we really started talking about this and prices are not going to go down.”

Joining Mazepa in voting to seek bids for the project were Tammy Recker, MaryJo King, Stacey Connell, Sherry Haas and Audrey Larvey.

Last month, ALLOY5 noted that the water line changes somewhere underground from 2 to 1.5 inches and if the district stayed with 7 showers in each locker room as planned, the water pressure would suffer significantly.

With the addition of the locker rooms, two existing single use restrooms in the building would be eliminated and an 84-square-foot assisted use bathroom with a shower.

Galiotto said the family style restroom is required by code when a project includes the addition of more than one shower in each locker room.

“I still don’t see why we need it,” Earl Paules said on Tuesday. “It is going to cost $30,000 for one bathroom.”

District officials have said coaches, parents or athletes in sports other than wrestling who are using the weight room could use that bathroom so they don’t have to go into the wrestling locker room.