The Friday night lights are at full power at Brookfield stadium this football season. After more than a year, renovations are complete at the field on the district’s K-12 campus.
Becdel Controls took the lead on the electrical work. The company, along with others, was acknowledged in an article by Brookfield’s News on the Green for going above and beyond expectations for the job.
Lighting and heavy lifting
Matt Lucy, Becdel’s project manager, said everyone hit the ground running in the spring.
“Lighting was moved from the old stadium and relocated to the new one. Plus, we added a pole. The stadium is at the soccer field which has a track, and the school decided to incorporate football there.”
Because of the equipment Becdel has, the company was able to pitch in on otherwise challenging tasks.
“We helped get the band bleachers to the new field and brought over the existing scoreboard and set it up,” Lucy said.
The project includes new bleachers, moving an existing press box to the visitors’ side and getting a new one for the home side. Becdel hooked up power for both press boxes and made other enhancements.
“More wire was pulled, control cabinets were installed, and we ran fiber optics from the school to the new stadium. Internet and Wi-Fi were set up, and we also put in speakers for the visitor side.”
Final piece of the puzzle
The school relocated due to safety concerns at the old field. The upgrades forced Brookfield to play its season opener in Hubbard, but the stadium is now ready for crowds.
“We were waiting for the home press box to be delivered. Then, it had to be wired quickly to be ready for use,” he said.
Becdel put in the original electrical infrastructure for the stadium, so electricians were just building on what was already there.
“The visitors’ side now has service for future expansion. Conduit feeds are there for baseball/softball fields, scoreboards and press boxes that are planned for next year.”
Lucy added that timing was everything for a project like this – especially with the football season underway.
“There were a lot of time-consuming aspects to the job. Other than that, it was typical stuff for us. It was about getting power from point A-to-B, and just making it work.”
Becdel Controls is a member contractor of NECA-IBEW Electricians, an association consisting of IBEW Local 64 in Youngstown, IBEW Local 573 in Warren and signatory electrical contractors throughout the Mahoning Valley.