Crews take paint off Naperville North's gridiron

Naperville North High School's synthetic turf football field is almost as good as new again less than two weeks after being damaged by vandals.

Naperville Unit District 203 hired a contractor that was able to clean the spray-painted profanities off the turf that had just been installed in May.

On July 17, school employees discovered graffiti on the field and struggled to find products strong enough to clean it themselves.

An Ohio-based company with specialized equipment came out this week and was able to get the job done. School board President Mike Jaensch said the contractor was able to remove about 98 percent of the spray paint.

An exact cost of the cleaning was not immediately available Thursday night but Ralph Weaver, director of facilities and construction, said it should be below $10,500. The district is looking into whether the cost will be covered by insurance.

Naperville Unit District 203 spent $750,000 on the turf including installation and site work.