Spanish Fort city leaders have put a hold on potential new construction involving Spanish Fort High’s athletic facilities after council members said they had several questions about what the project completely entailed.

The contract before the council was for $1,950 for geotechnical exploration for the potential new concession building, restrooms and girls’ field house.

Councilwoman Mary Brabner said she had concerns about the city always being the source of funding for improvements like this.

“I question the need for it,” Brabner said. “I don’t know that this should necessarily be a city expense. I’m not saying that it’s not needed, I’m not saying that it wouldn’t make life easier - I’m just saying at some point in time we have to ask them to do their own fundraising and do their own thing without coming to us to be the financial wing for everything that they want to do.”

Brabner said she had spoken to several parents and female athletes and said they preferred the field house to be on the main property.

“They’re building a new gym up there, and that’s going to give the girls weight facilities that are more usable for everyone than to have it way up on the hill,” Brabner said. “I just feel like it’s an expense that we don’t need to step out and take care of for them. I don’t want to say no to the girls, but in talking to these parents, they don’t feel like it’s needed. They don’t feel like it will be utilized on the hill.”

Councilman J.R. Smith said he would like to hear from the principal and athletic director about what the priorities were with regard to this type of construction, especially in light of the new gym construction.

“We definitely don’t need to be building a new weight room and locker room 300 yards from where they’re going to construct another one,” Smith said.

Councilman Bill Menas said he wanted to make sure the city was continuing to be prudent with its money.

“We really just to decide what, if anything or all of what they’re proposing, if we’re even going to do it,” Menas said. “We placed the money in that account. We never agreed to spend it, to get our budget through for last year.”

Means said he wasn’t opposed to it, but it was a lot of money to consider.

“It’s not like us to spend a large amount of money like that if we’re not all on board and clear about what we’re doing in the first place,” Menas said. “There are some items they are wanting that would be very nice, but it also comes up to somewhere between 9 and 11 percent of our total budget for the entire city for the year. I can’t do it. I can’t agree to everything they’re wanting to do. That big a bite of our budget - I couldn’t sleep at night.”

The council members seemed to agree that the planned upgrades for the restrooms and concession areas were likely necessary, so Mayor Mike McMillan said he would reach out to the engineers working on the project.

“What I think I’m hearing is get the engineers to redo a contract on just the restroom and concession areas and drop the field house out of this,” McMillan said.

The council will take up the issue again at a future meeting.