St. Charles North poised to get $1.2 million field
When the St. Charles North football team defends its home turf next season, they may have actual turf to defend.
A school board committee tentatively agreed Wednesday night to construct a $1.2 million artificial-turf field at St. Charles North. The decision would address years of failed attempts to keep and maintain the natural grass surface of the current football field.
The committee weighed the ongoing costs and benefits of a natural grass field versus synthetic turf via a presentation by the Wisconsin-based Rettler Corp. The firm would act as architects and project managers for the new field's installation.
Rick Rettler, the president of the firm, showed how the total cost of a natural grass surface would be less but a synthetic turf field would involve far less maintenance and allow for much more use.
"What you're going to see is even if you went with a natural turf, how difficult it would be to maintain," Rettler said. "It would basically be impractical. You'll see that a synthetic profile begins to surface as potentially being more appropriate in terms of what it could be used for."
The cost of keeping and improving the natural grass would have an initial cost of $482,000. But the 10-year cost, with maintenance and additional improvements, would total about $832,000.
Even then, the grass field would be available for only about 132 hours of use a year. That's roughly double the use it sees now.
But Rettler showed how an artificial turf could be a moneymaker for the school.
The 10-year cost of the artificial turf, with maintenance, would be about $1.275 million. But its durability would allow for up to 1,637 hours of use each year. That would accommodate the football team, other outdoor sports and the marching band. The district also could rent the field to outside users.
St. Charles North Athletic Director Dan Dolney said he gets calls every month from other schools, organizations and even colleges looking to pay for practice field space and time. But the conditions of the grass at North are so unstable that many of the school's teams get bused to other schools and pay to use their fields.
School board members Steve Spurling, Nick Manheim and Kathy Hewell all spoke in favor of the synthetic turf.
"I've seen us spend a great deal of money and have that go right down the tubes; nothing there has worked," Hewell said. "That is just factual. So it seems like it makes a lot of sense to go with artificial turf."
Fellow board members Ed McNally and Lori Linkimer agreed that a solution is needed, and now is the time to do it. The school board is set to issue up to $20 million in bonds the next couple of years to fund the new football field as well as improvements to the Norris Recreation Center and major renovations to Thompson and Wredling middle schools.
But McNally and Linkimer indicated they needed a little more time to decide between natural grass and artificial turf.
Superintendent Don Schlomann said he could understand the appeal of natural grass. It's what he would prefer to have at the school. But the field conditions at North just don't seem to favor grass, he said.
The full school board will take a vote on the issue later this month.