St. Charles school board can't agree on plan to fix football field

Every St. Charles school board member agrees the athletic field at St. Charles North High School is in such bad shape that it borders on being dangerous to students. That situation will continue at least awhile longer, as the board couldn't agree how to fix the field Monday night.

Coaches and boosters at North all want to put a new, artificial turf field at the school. The cost would be about $1 million. Such fields have a life span of about 10 years. A replacement turf field would cost about $400,000 in today's dollars.

Boosters wanted permission to sell advertising to area businesses to raise money for the field. That included erecting ads that would be visible by motorists, and potentially, local residents, along Red Gate Road.

Two scenarios came to the table Monday.

Option one would have the boosters raise half the money and the district would pay for the other half. The boosters would then be on the hook for the $400,000 replacement field 10 years later.

Option two envisions a more successful fundraising effort by the boosters that raked in two-thirds of the cost of the new field. In that scenario, the district would chip in the final one-third of the cost and pay for the replacement field itself in 10 years.

With the exception of school board member Lori Linkimer, board members agreed either scenario would be a good deal. Board member Jim Gaffney was especially supportive of the plan if the boosters raised two-thirds of the cost.

"Over a 20-year period, the field will cost us $1.4 million," Gaffney said. "They are going to throw in $900,000. We are going to throw in $500,000. That's $25,000 a year. To be honest, it's a heck of a deal."

District officials pointed out that it already costs local taxpayers about $80,000 every three years just to keep the field at minimum safety standards.

But that's also where the school board found its most major disagreement. Linkimer objected to any plan that involves advertising on Red Gate Road. But she also joined board members Steve Spurling and Ed McNally in expressing concern about using artificial turf instead of natural grass.

Superintendent Don Schlomann agreed that turf is not ideal. However, he agreed with board members Kathy Hewell, Corinne Pierog and Jim Gaffney in thinking turf may be the only workable solution. Hewell said grass has never really taken on the field.

"Engineers and turf people and consultants have all tried," Hewell said. "Whomever has come by has never been able to fix it."

The boosters may not be able to fix it either. With board member Nick Manheim absent, the school board deadlocked 3-3 on giving the boosters permission to fundraise for a turf field. That means the proposal is dead unless boosters and the board find a way to revive the issue.