GAINESVILLE – One of the most vivid memories many high school athletes take with them into adulthood may soon be a thing of the past in Hall County. The experience of playing ball (football, soccer, baseball, etc.) on a muddy field will be no more if voters approve the sale of general obligation bonds by the district in the March 24th primary election.
At Monday’s Hall County Board of Education work session Executive Director of Facilities and Construction, Matt Cox, presented a ten-year spending plan for activity areas at the seven county high schools.
It included estimates for resurfacing tracks, replacing gymnasium bleachers, enhancing safety and security infrastructure and LED lighting, but the lion’s share of the rough estimate was designated for replacing grass with artificial turf.
At present only North Hall High School has artificial turf, but the feedback has been very positive, so school leaders want to bring the experience to the other six high schools.
Cox’s plan, should the bond referendum receive voter support, would be to replace the surfaces at Chestatee, Flowery Branch and West Hall High Schools in 2020; the fields at East Hall, Johnson and Cherokee Bluff High Schools would be replaced in 2021.
Board chairman Craig Herrington said, “I know we’re looking at turf, and in the past we have not gone that way, but the technology for turf has changed greatly…it does not save a great deal of money over regular turf, a sodded field, however, you can get much more use out of it.”
School Superintendent Will Schofield said, “Your biggest green spaces on all your high school campuses are off-limits, unless it’s Friday night or Saturday mornings, and Heaven forbid if there’s bad weather.”
Schofield said the individual schools embrace the idea as well. “We sent of information and asked all of our coaching staffs how they felt about it: one-hundred percent said it would make very positive impacts on the usage of their fields, and they all wanted to go from natural to artificial.”
“When it comes to extracurricular wants, not extracurricular needs, the list is infinite,” Schofield said. He explained spending plans need to focus on “things that can make a difference the minute that we put them in.” Installing artificial grass, he said, was one of those items.
Cox said the actual installation process –removing the existing grass, prepping the site and laying the surface - would happen late spring /early summer and should require no more than two months to complete. He added that the $1-million cost for each job and the associated timelines for installation were estimates since the whole project awaits the March 24th election results, therefore, bids had not yet been solicited.
(Click here to see a video explaining more about the proposed use of the funds if voter approved.)
