FAIRVIEW – Fairview High School’s football stadium has been in construction now for much longer than anticipated, with the most recent report stating that the stadium is still eight weeks from completion.
“And that’s eight weeks if they started last week,” said FHS Principal Chris Gambrill. “They didn’t do anything last week, they worked four hours yesterday and 30 minutes today.”
Gambrill said he is barred from communicating with the contractor or any of the workers due to the communication restrictions surrounding the project.
“I don’t know anything that’s going on, except that things that are supposed to be done aren’t getting done,” he said. “No one knows who should be cussing out who.”
Gambrill said he is frustrated and tired from a project that he has not be allowed to assist with.
“We just want to come home and play our home games back in this stadium. Cullman is amazing, and their people are fantastic. I am not saying anything bad about them, but that’s not home,” he said, expressing an understandable sentiment.
Gambrill expressed frustration at the glacial pace of the construction.
“I had my house built. If the man I had hired to do the job didn’t show up, I would just fire him and get a new builder,” he said. “I don’t know why that’s not happening here.”
Due to the costs of continuing to play all away games, Gambrill has no answer as to where the money will come from to fund the upcoming season.
“We are depleted in the football program,” he said. “We’re probably about $25,000 below where we were two years ago. I don’t know what we do. We can’t afford to travel. We can’t afford to give up a home game.”
Gambrill said that no one has any answers and he isn’t included in meetings that go on regarding the project.
“I hate it because when I go to The Hutch or the grocery store and someone says, ‘Hey, how is the football stadium coming?’ I just have to say, ‘I don’t know,’” he said.
If the 8-week timetable stands, the Aggies will host Mortimer-Jordan, as their first home game in three years, on Sept. 16. Mortimer-Jordan was last year’s state runner-up, and finished the regular season undefeated.
Dafford Smith Stadium was closed in 2014 over safety concerns after the concrete bleachers began to shift.
Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette is out of the office all week and not available for comment.
