These people must stay awake late thinking this stuff up...
LOCAL NEWS ALERT***- Yes this piece is about the town in which I live. I still think many readers will find it relevant, because one finds big spenders with no thought or consideration for the hapless taxpayers in EVERY town and hamlet across America.
Is there no end to the things that municipalities and school districts must have? Every time I go to look at a newspaper, I find myself hesitating, wondering if I really need (or want) to know what I'm about to read. What will be the latest "scheme" that our "leaders" will concoct? At times, one wonders how late these people must lie awake at night dreaming this stuff up.
Today, in The Citizen newspaper, I find out that the current sports playing fields are inadequate and must be redone in artificial turf...
The conversation moved to a discussion over the possible development of a "synthetic" multipurpose athletic field. The hope is to use the synthetic field as a varsity field, preferable located in the village area.
I walked through the fields in question just last night. They seemed to me to be some of the finest sporting areas I have ever seen. But, for the elites of my town, of course they are not good enough...
Currently there is a community football field located at the Meadows just off Route 11B. However there are more athletic fields in the planning stages for the site. Plans include two soccer fields, a lacrosse field, a baseball field, and a new football field.
The big spenders can never have too much... cause it's "for the kids!" (and the engineers, architects, and well-connected contractors)
Comments
One thing you should consider before being upset about the cost of synthetic fields: if you have natural fields, they're already costing the town a whole lot of money to maintain.
Fertilizing, weeding, watering, mowing, line painting, resodding - these things can cost literally tens of thousands of dollars per year for a single field. Synthetic turf doesn't generally require these things (except occasional watering and grooming), and typically the costs (compared to natural grass) balance out over the life of the field.
Also, synthetic fields don't require the "down time" that natural grass fields do. So if your town collects usage fees from their sports fields, they can increase their revenue by making fields available 24 hours a day.
Anyhoo - just some things to consider. I understand that the initial cost of synthetic seems high sometimes, but most people aren't aware of the actual costs for any type of field over a period of years.
Posted by: Turf Expert | July 21, 2006 02:32 PM
If one wants a pristine field, I could see $10Ks of bucks per year. If one is a big time college, spend it (especially if that sport (e.g., football) is a revenue source. Gilford is a small village - do we really need to keep fields in such shape?
Posted by: Skip | July 24, 2006 05:51 PM