Geneva High will get artificial turf for $1.1 million
It will cost $1.1 million to refurbish Burgess Field at Geneva High School with artificial turf and improved drainage.
The school board Monday agreed to hire the low bidder, Nicholas and Associates of Mount Prospect. The highest bid was from $1.23 million from Henry Bros. Co. of Hickory Hills.
An anonymous donor is giving the school district $500,000 toward the replacement, and the Geneva Friends of Burgess Field, an offshoot of the All-Sports Booster Club, raised $45,000 for the project.
The school board agreed in 2010 the natural-turf field needed to be replaced, but felt taxpayers should only be responsible for the cost equivalent of natural turf.
The district plans to start construction this spring and complete work by early summer.The field has lost its crown, and parts of its drainage system are broken. The district tried to minimize use of the field in recent years. It conducted some football practices at the old Broadview Academy in La Fox, and the marching band has practiced in a parking lot. It kept physical education classes off the field.Work is scheduled to begin May 21 and end in mid-August, Superintendent Kent Mutchler said Tuesday.A member of the Geneva TaxFACTS civic group has questioned why Nicholas and Associates had posted on its website that it had received the contract before the board voted on it.Mutchler said that when the bids were opened Jan. 22, they were read aloud, as required by state law. If the bidders were present at the opening, they would know who submitted the lowest bid. Furthermore, the project manager, Rempe-Sharpe and Associates, then contacted the low bidder and the references they supplies, before recommending the bid to the board.#8220;We don't announce any decision (on a bid)#8221; until the board votes on it, Mutchler said.