Mid-America Sports Construction Selected for Ball Fields Complex Project
The Abilene City Commission has authorized Interim City Manager Quinday to sign an engagement letter with Mid-America Sports Construction for the development of the city's new ball fields complex, following a competitive selection process.
Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Timbrook presented the update during the September 8, 2025 commission meeting, explaining that the selection came after a thorough request for qualifications (RFQ) process that began after voters approved a sales tax to fund the project earlier this year.
"After the sales tax was passed, we, as a committee, issued an RFQ and started that process. We had 10 firms respond to that," Timbrook told commissioners. "After we did evaluation of those, we narrowed it down to five. They sent in proposals and requests for bids, the presentations, interviews."
The next step involves signing a letter of engagement with Mid-America Sports, allowing for initial meetings to refine the project scope. The engagement letter carries a cost not to exceed $5,000, which will be deducted from the design fee and has already been incorporated into the overall project budget.
Commissioner Witt noted the competitive nature of the selection process, stating, "I do want to highlight how excited we were that it was that competitive of a process of having 10 different entities, and then ultimately five. There's a lot of quality companies that were wanting to do business with Abilene."
Witt added that the committee found "the greatest comfort in working with Mid-America" and emphasized that the city needs help "to refine the scope, to really understand what's going to provide the best value on tabling matching the intent of that past sales tax."
While the engagement letter falls within the city manager's signing authority, the item was brought before the commission due to the overall size and public visibility of the project. The final contract will be presented to the commission for approval at a future meeting.
The motion to authorize the city manager to sign the engagement letter passed unanimously.
