Turf Field 'Not a Done Deal,' Officials Say
Residents give their suggestions for better use of the money.
Photos
A turf field at the high school is “by no means a done deal,” according to Jefferson Township Board of Education business administrator Dora Zeno, a sentiment confirmed by township business administrator James Leach.
While both the township and school board admit a turf field at the high school would be as much of an asset as the one at the Lakeside Field complex is, they also admit that there are many things to be considered, including the financial, engineering and ecological factors.
Preliminary figures for the project from an architect working with the school board came in about about $1.2 million, but board member Frank Cuccio said the board's finance committee is looking for ways to trim that cost.
According to school board president Ron Smith, the township has agreed to “help us with a turf field.
“The town would buy and install the turf for us, and we would work out an agreement where recreation programs could use the field, but school events would always come first,” Smith said.
However, Leach said only an informal meeting has taken place between township and school officials, and plans are preliminary right now.
“I’ve just started to work on a feasibility study,” Leach said. “I’m looking into pricing, plus other issues. We have to look into the ecological side. We have wetlands issues to contend with if we extend the field out to a certain point.”
Leach assured the township council at its meeting on Wednesday night that “you will have loads of information before any agreement is reached. I want to be sure you know that neither the mayor nor I have entered into any sort of agreement with the Board of Education without bringing it to your attention first.”
Based on comments on Jefferson Patch’s Facebook page, several residents do not believe in the necessity of a turf field, no matter who pays for it. And many came up with alternate suggestions for use of the money.
“Maybe we could put the money towards new calculators at the HS, the children aren't allowed to take them home for homework or use them for SAT/ACT testing. Or maybe decent rubber gloves for dissection, it was suggested that they purchase their own,” Sue Dallicardillo said.
“That money should be spent elsewhere,” Laurie Reilly-Norton said.
When the high school is ranked so low in the state they should be focused in improving that as opposed to a nice new turf field!”
Suggesting that the proposal be put out to vote, Elaine Williams Attanasio agreed that the money would be better placed elsewhere.
“A turf field is the last thing our BOE needs to spending 1.2 million dollars on, even if Mr. Cuccio can get the cost to a fraction less,” she said. “Within our district ( which includes so many schools and kids) we need certain things to properly educate our student body a turf field is not even on the long list!”
And Colleen Frederick had another suggestion for the money that didn’t include the school district at all.
“We don't need a field at the high school. Its perfectly good field,” she said. “Plus we have Lakeside Field! Take our tax money and fix our roads. We need new roads. These roads are destroying people’s cars,” she concluded.
Elisa DeYoung
7:03 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Making an investment on this turf project is one thing and maintaining this is another. Did we make appropriations for this in the future? What is the lifetime of this investment.? What will the maintenance dept be spending their time doing? Doesn't this take time away from our maintenance budget? Exactly what portion of the township will benefit from it. For so many years grass seemed to work well. How do you think the turf will look when it is near to getting replaced? Look into the future... it will look great once it's installed.... for the high school kids and families that will benefit. Four years just fly!!! Do we need this, really?
Pete Dunbar
8:12 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
The STAR project here in Jefferson has a website that answers a lot of the questions and concerns that anyone may have regarding the FieldTurf as far as safety, maintanence and longevity. As well as the benefits to the community.
http://starproject.webs.com/artificialturfqa.htm
http://starproject.webs.com/turffacts.htm
Mother in Town
10:43 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
I cannot believe that after a parent discussed our dismal SAT scores, out HSPA and ASK scores are in the toilet and we "don't know if we have the money for drug testing" that could save lives, we are even entertaining this idea. We all need to take a step back. We have a superitendent that has had TWO board members resign under him. The Patch mentioned that the super knew earlier in the day the BOE member was going to resign. Where was any conversation with her, why didn't the BOE president know?? What else isn't talked about. After all the settlements, do we really need turf fields? How about drug free students that can get into college!!!!!!!
Charlotte Nixon
10:55 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Seems to me that "Mother in Town" and "Bugs Bunny" just may REALLY be more than that... That's all folks!
Tom Hantson
5:12 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
I know for a fact that there are windows in Briggs that are so bad that they put up plastic to keep the cold out and not only did they do that but the shades were down and they couldn't open them because the plastic was on top of it. There are other windows which leak and others which cannot open or close. Why is this not being taken care of. I am not against a turf fields so long as things which are broken get fixed first. Let's be real here.
katherine van wolput
6:33 pm on Sunday, September 30, 2012
Agreed on all counts - test scores, building maintenance, drug testing...lets assume that all those things were "in place" just for a second.
How about the ridiculous condition of all the other fields our athletes play on? Aside from the Varsity football and Varsity Lacrosse teams, who else gets regular use of the Football field?
Im pretty sure that the majority of our other teams (and there are quite a few) have to play & practice on the "Varsity Field" over by the bus Depot or the Field Hockey/softball fields. Have you seen those fields?? They are complete mess. Divots and holes litter the fields and are cause for so many injuries that our athletes suffer. Perhaps we should consider repairing those fields before we drop more cash on the football field.
Again, this would be in an alternate universe where our academics, test scores and safety of our students would be thriving.
Priorities.
Jason Palmisano
10:59 am on Monday, October 8, 2012
What is the STAR Project? Who runs the STAR Project? Besides having a golf outing, How is the STAR Project funded?