A facelift is underway for a couple Aberdeen Central athletic facilities this summer.

Both Golden Eagles Arena and the Brownell Athletic Complex are getting a few touch-ups, as work on both began late last week.

Central athletic director Dawn Seiler said the projects will address functionality issues as well as some cosmetic updates.

In Golden Eagles Arena, the arena floor will get a new coat of paint, with some graphic advertising added to the north and south walls. Additionally, new statistic boards have been added.

“Our stat boards didn’t work last year for basketball, because we had both analog and digital systems that didn’t communicate very well,” Seiler said. “The new boards will be all digital.”

The bigger project – and perhaps the most visible of the two – is a significant undertaking at Brownell Athletic Complex.

“(That) will look a lot different,” Seiler said. “They’re taking up the track right now. Hopefully, they’ll be done removing the old track by the end of the week.”

That will be replaced by a new track surface that will be gray in color with pops of blue accents in the exchange zones.

“Hopefully, that will make the football field and the soccer field pop a bit,” Seiler said. 

The press box will also undergo significant changes, including new windows, a new layout, technology and functionality upgrades and a look that will more closely match the existing fieldhouse.

All the projects, Seiler noted, are matters more of necessity than strictly desire.

“The life of a track is 15 years,” she said. “We extended past that. Especially considering where we live and our harsh weather conditions, our track stood up well.”

But time and the elements have taken their toll and the current surface is showing its age, with the rubber coming up in chunks in places.

The press box, too, which predates the Brownell facility having come over from the original Swisher Field, was a web of operational functionality issues that can now be addressed all at once.

“That’s a dinosaur,” Seiler said. “But it’s just like everything else. We did our best to maintain it and it lasted beyond what anyone would have expected.”

The press box housed operations for everything from radio broadcasts to fully automatic timing systems for track meets, plus scoreboard and sound systems, all of which needed upgrades. 

“When you’re piecing them together, it’s difficult,” Seiler said. “But when you can update them all together, it’ll function well. That’s the hope.”

Construction is expected to be completed in August.