By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

Charles “Tiny” Prescott, who oversees the day-to-day operations at Callaway Stadium, calls the facility a “grand old lady.”

Well, that lady is in the midst of a massive facelift.

In recent years, the stadium has gotten new turf, a new scoreboard, and a press box renovation.

Now, in the second phase of a three-phase operation, work is under way at the stadium that will enhance the stadium even more for the 2010 football season.

By far the biggest part of this renovation is the creation of a new locker room on the visitor’s side of the stadium, as well as the merging of the two locker rooms on the home side.

The work, Prescott said, is scheduled to be done by July 23, with the first regular-season football game at the stadium scheduled for Aug. 27 when Callaway and Troup get together.

“They were three weeks behind due to rain in January and February, but they’ve caught it just about up,” Prescott said Friday morning while surveying the construction being done at the stadium.

The new locker rooms will be a vast upgrade over the previous facilities that had been in place since the stadium opened for business in 1959.

Speer Burdette, the president of the Callaway Foundation, earlier called the old locker room “woeful and in dire need of improvement.”

The new locker rooms will give the players twice as much room, and there’ll be new training facilities as well as well as a new room for the officials.

Red brick, exactly the same brick used for the ticket booth on the home side, will adorn the outside of the locker rooms.

Also, there’ll be new men’s and women’s bathrooms on the visitor’s side, as well as a new men’s bathroom and concession stand on the home side.

New concession storage areas are being built on both sides of the stadium, and the women’s bathroom on the home side will get a new roof as well as a new brick wall.

There will be a few other touches as well, including new handrails on the aisles and a hedge of holly bushes on the home side,

Phase one of the stadium face lift, which included a renovation of the press box, was done before the 2009 season.

The start date for phase three, which includes the installation of a new press box, hasn’t been determined.

The $2.6 million needed for the first two phases was provided by the Callaway Foundation.

The Smith Design Group created the plans, and the work is being done by Langford Construction.

While the work has gone, the stadium has continued to be used.

During the spring, soccer matches were played, and this weekend, graduations are being held.

In a few weeks, the three-day West Georgia Superstar football camp will be held.

The biggest adjustment for spectators has been the loss of the restrooms, facilitating the need for some portable bathrooms.

Prescott said the workers at the stadium have gone out of their way to adjust to the needs of the folks using the stadium.

“This bunch has been super,” Prescott said. “Any soccer game, any activity we have going on, they’ll work with us. They’ll work around it.”