Focus on TUSD - July 2007

Cherry Field Demolished; New Facility to be Ready for 2008-09
Construction for the Tucson Drainage Project and the Arroyo Chico watershed began earlier this month with a groundbreaking ceremony at TUSD's Cherry Field, on East 13th Street between South Cherry Avenue and South Kino Parkway.

The project will address flood control and ecosystem restoration along the Tucson Arroyo/Arroyo Chico watershed, including the Park Avenue detention basin complex and channel improvements. The project is a collaboration among the Pima County Regional Flood Control District, the city of Tucson, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and TUSD.

Granite Construction Co. received the $19.4 million construction contract for Phase II of the project, which calls for demolishing Tucson High Magnet School's Cherry Field, excavating the basin, and constructing a new multitiered baseball and softball complex. Cherry Field is bordered by Kino Parkway on the east and Winsett Street on the south.

Cherry Field will be out of service until August 2008, when it will reopen with new bleachers, backstops, dugouts, fences, locker rooms, a maintenance building, field lights, landscaping and irrigation.

Options still are being considered for where Tucson High teams will play and/or practice during the 2007-2008 year.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations