Hayslett Construction of Hurricane topped a field of seven contractors on Wednesday to become the apparent low bidder for the Shawnee Park Multi-Sport Complex during a sealed bid-opening session in the Kanawha County Commission courtroom.

Hayslett’s bid of $8,769,000 was $1.7 million lower than the second lowest bidder, Paramount Builders of St. Albans, and $5.3 million lower that the highest bidder, Triton Construction, also of St. Albans. All seven firms submitting sealed bids were based in West Virginia.

The construction project includes six turf collegiate-size soccer and lacrosse fields, four collegiate-size baseball and softball fields, several practice fields, a community building and a Youth Development Center in which after-school activities will be housed. Improvements to the park’s existing swimming pool and outdoor basketball courts are also planned.

The Kanawha County Commission will officially name the winning bidder during its Thursday afternoon meeting.

“The fact that we had seven bidders shows that there is a tremendous amount of interest in this project,” said Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, who added that several of the bids “were very close to our estimates.”

Salango said the Shawnee Park Multi-Sport Complex Foundation should not have difficulty raising the remaining amount of funds needed to complete the project.

Weather conditions will drive when construction will get underway and how rapidly it will proceed, Salango said. “But our goal is to have it open by July 15,” he said. “We have tournaments ready to play shortly after that.”