Jim Thorpe Area School District is moving forward with plans to replace the running track at Jim Thorpe Olympian Stadium, which is over 20 years old.

The board voted 6-3 Wednesday night to award, with conditions, a $506,887 contract to Grace Industries of Bath, Northampton County.

The contract won’t become official until both sides agree on the exact scope of work. District officials want to ensure that the track construction is coordinated with the ongoing project to install an artificial turf field.

Grace’s bid was lower than the bid submitted by the contractor working on the turf field project, Keystone Sports Construction.

Board President Jerry Strubinger, who proposed rejecting all three bids received by the district, said the district’s bid requirements for the project weren’t specific enough. He voted against awarding the project to Grace.

TJ Garritano and Cindy Lesisko Henning also voted against awarding the project to Grace.

They were concerned about the integration of the track and the turf field with two different contractors. Garritano said that using a separate contractor would delay the track project past the 2021 spring season.

“There is an engineering issue with the track not leveling with the curbing - second we can guarantee there won’t be a home track season,” Garritano said.

Before the vote, the board heard from alumnus Kareem Mickens, a professional track athlete, as well as a current athlete and the track coach. They urged them to address the problems with the track, in order to give athletes a proper place to compete.

Mickens said that a new track would help prevent injuries, make it easier to hold invitationals, and produce faster times. Also, competing in track helps develop leadership skills, work ethic, and other intangibles.

“Track and field team is a chance to learn what it is to communicate with others, make friends, how to compete and have an outlet to get out of trouble after school,” Mickens said.

Rising Senior Lydia Wallace said without replacing the track, she won’t be able to compete at home in her senior year. And it would be a better place to practice than on grass or in a hallway.

“I think not having a track to not only practice but also perfect the craft would be a huge deficit to myself and every person on the team,” she said.

Coach Frank Miller pointed out that the track is used by other sports, and is open to the public, in addition to being used as the venue for his team.

“For the benefit of not just the student athletes of Jim Thorpe Area School District, but the district at large, I ask that solutions be looked into for the necessary repairs and replacements of the current surface,” Miller said.

The school board put the track project out for bid late last month.

At their July 27 meeting, school board members considered awarding the project to Keystone Sports Construction as a change order on the turf field project. Keystone said the cost of the change order would be between $596,790 and $721,646. Without the track included, the current cost of the turf field project is $2.2 million.

During Thursday’s meeting, the school board agreed to move $1.5 million to its capital projects fund to fund the cost of the project.

The turf field is expected to be completed by early October.