By STEPHANIE BRUMFIELD / Staff Writer

CALERA – The Calera City Council approved an equipment and labor bid to make improvements to the drainage system for the city’s new sports complex during its July 15 meeting.

The system will be a subsurface drainage system beneath the fields, which city engineer Chris Pappas said will cause the fields to drain faster when it rains, making it faster and easier to resume play.

The city, which has been doing much of the work for the sports complex on its own, must use an outside party for this portion of the process because it do not has the necessary equipment to install the system on its own, Pappas said.

The contract will include installing 32,000 feet of sub-surface drainage tile, which Pappas said hopefully can begin within the next 30 days, weather permitting.

“We will start once the top soil goes in,” he said. “As soon as we catch a break in rain, we can get the irrigation (system) in, then the topsoil … Once we have enough topsoil that we feel comfortable the contractor won’t catch up, we’ll bring him in.”

Once completed, Pappas said the complex will have multiple soccer fields, baseball fields, softball fields and tennis courts.

At the end of the meeting, Mayor Jon Graham recognized Phyllis Edwards, who is retiring as the city’s magistrate after working with the city of Calera for 17 years. A reception was held in her honor after the meeting.