GULF SHORES, Ala. — The brand new track at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex was a crowning jewel during May’s state championship track meet for the state’s largest schools.

Now the city will have to add even more to the facility on top of the more than $500,000 upgrades to make it compatible for the NAIA national championships in May. The city recently won a bid to be host for the group’s championships in 2014 and 2015.

“Through the work of the recreation department we were able to get the NAIA tournament for the upcoming year, in May,” Public Works Director Mark Acreman said. “But one of the conditions that was put upon us was we had to provide a hammer toss, the runway for a javelin toss as well as an additional shot put.”

After first trying to contract for the initial resurfacing themselves, officials eventually turned to a sports architecture firm, Holcombe Norton Partners, to oversee the design, bidding and construction.

On Monday, the council agreed to another contract with the firm to provide the same services for the upcoming additions. The city will pay Holcombe Norton just under $13,000.

 “What you have before you today for consideration is a proposal for design services, bidding services and construction documents to add those three elements so they will be ready by the time the track tournament takes place in 2014.” Acreman said.

Acreman said the firm will also be charged with recommending usage of extra property at Sportsplex that is currently unused.

“They will also look at the property that is currently west of the football stadium to accommodate what we anticipate will be continued growth for visiting youth or hosting large-scale tournaments be it baseball, football or track,” Acreman said.

The additions will not be placed in the interior of the oval running track, but rather at one end of the track.

“They will be outside it, probably close to the soccer field to try to take advantage of that turf,” Acreman said. “Once we know that, then we can come back to you guys with an estimate of what this project will cost to construct and then start the process.”

City Administrator Steve Griffin said funds are available from projects in the current budget that didn’t get started or completed.

“There’s almost $300,000 of the bond issue that was devoted to the main part of the pool and dehumidifier,” Griffin said. “We are not going to be able to get to that this fiscal year so it’s going to be carried over and requested for next year.

“So with that savings I think we can afford this. I just wanted you to know that we are keeping an eye on the capital budget and we do have a way to pay for that.”

Councilman Jason Dyken, a supporter of the track improvements from the beginning, said the extra costs are not a surprise to him or other council members.

“When we did the track improvements and knew we were going to go after collegiate events,” Dyken said. “We knew at the front end we were going to be recruiting these type of events and those events were going to have those requirements. That’s not an unanticipated expense.”

Initially the council and other city officials thought the resurfacing would cost between $250,000 and $300,000. In the end the cost ran more than $500,000. According to a memo to the City Council on April 15 “the project is funded with bond monies and was budgeted for $537,200.00. The change order will result in an overrun of $23,596.91.”

That final extra cost was to buy aluminum curbing so the track could play host to both high school and college track meets.

Mayor Robert Craft said the city will benefit from the track improvements by attracting more meets to the facility.

“The track that we’ve got will host NAIA events with these improvements,” Mayor Robert Craft said. “All we’re doing is making an already improved track better.”