The $1.8 million renovation of Buckeye Stadium is “still on track” and construction of the new 2-story press box will “really start moving real fast now,” the project manager told the Gilmer School Board Monday night.

Brent Bishop of WRL General Contractors, Ltd. of Flint, which is construction manager for the renovation, said the overall project should progress sufficiently to utilize the stadium for high school graduation ceremonies in June.

“We’re pushing real hard to get done as soon as possible,” which will save the school district money because a job superintendent won’t be needed on-site, said Bishop. A 1994 graduate of Gilmer High School, he is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Wesley Bishop.

Plans call for adding more than 1,000 seats to the home side of the 50-year-old stadium. The approximately 50-year-old one-story press box was demolished sometime after the project started in November.

Bishop told trustees that workers are now ready for bleacher steel, and that bleachers will be delivered the week of March 18. Installation will take six weeks, and, weather permitting, “we’ll be ahead of schedule with the bleachers,” he added.

The project manager, who made a short pictorial presentation to the board, said his firm had also created more access for home-side concession stand customers to obtain food.

Thacker/Davis Architects, Inc. of Longview is architect for the project. School Supt. Rick Albritton has said the renovation was needed partly because concrete put in place when the stadium was constructed in 1962 is deteriorating.