BUFFALO TWP — New baseball and softball fields may cost the Freeport School District $1.64 million to $2.4 million, depending on what type of field surface is used.

The school board Wednesday evening heard preliminary cost estimates for the fields.

Tom Durkin, architect with Pittsburgh-based VEBH Architects, gave a presentation highlighting three options for each field.

The high school baseball and softball teams will need new fields to play on for the spring 2017 season.

This spring, the baseball team will play on Swartz field in Freeport and the softball team, displaced by construction of the athletics complex, will play at Freeport Community Park.

The proposed location for the new fields is near the new middle school on the school's campus off South Pike Road.

The three surface options are grass and dirt; synthetic, or turf, for both the infield and outfield; and a synthetic infield and grass outfield.

For the baseball diamond, a grass field is estimated to cost $733,000; a synthetic infield, $870,000 and all synthetic, $1.28 million.

For the softball diamond, grass surface is estimated to cost $508,000; synthetic infield, $568,000, and all synthetic, $759,000.

The board also can chose to select some cost-saving options when it awards contracts, Durkin said.

The board's next step will be to approve a budget and a conceptual design.

For grass fields to be ready for spring 2017, the construction would need to be done by September 2016 so the fields could be seeded.

This means the contract would need to be awarded by May so that construction could begin by June 1.