Editor:
The Sweet Home School District is currently spending $25,000 per year on water and maintenance of the Husky Football Field.
This field is currently used for 10 to 15 football games per year. All other practices, soccer games, junior high sports and other community youth activities are played on playground-type fields. The use of the field is minimized to try and keep it in a safe and playable condition for the high school football games. The field is rarely used for any other purpose. Despite the limited use, when the rain comes the mud replaces the grass and the number of incidents involving pulled and strained muscles increases.
There is a solution to the high costs, limited use and increased injuries: synthetic turf. The idea of replacing the grass field to save on water and maintenance and to reduce injuries has come up a number of times over the years.
However, the initial cost of installing such a field can cost up to $1.3 million. Until recently, this idea did not seem possible because of the high cost. However, with a recent approval of a major sponsorship from The Community Sports Development Alliance, this project can now become a reality.
The CSDA is a nonprofit national alliance of sponsors that have committed significant resources to support the development of synthetic fields across the country. CSDA has approved the Sweet Home Project and has agreed to cover 70 percent of the cost to install a synthetic turf field that will accommodate nearly all football games (varsity, junior varsity and junior high), nearly all high school soccer games (boys and girls) and nearly all Boys and Girls Club football and soccer games (youth games).
Use of this field would jump from 15 games per year to well over 80 per year. The current field is used by approximately 80 athletes. This number would increase to over 600. In addition to these, regular physical education classes at the high school and junior high could use the field year round (currently they do not use it at all), impacting another 300 students.
The benefits of a synthetic turf field are many. A typical grass field uses approximately 500,000 gallons of water yearly. This means that during the driest time of the year (summer) the school district will save that much water for community use and in the process, save nearly $15,000 in water bills.
Wet and muddy fields that cause many sports injuries will be replaced with a synthetic turf that will drastically reduce these types of injuries. The synthetic turf also eliminates the use of fertilizers and potentially dangerous pesticides. Maintenance costs will be reduced by eliminating the need for mowing and field marking, saving about $10,000 yearly. The list could continue, but I think you get the idea.
As mentioned above, the estimated value of the proposed synthetic field is $1.3 million. CSDA has committed to covering 70 percent of the costs, leaving approximately $400,000 that needs to be raised by Sweet Home. At this point, the grass turf removal and the field grading and preparation, valued at approximately $125,000, will be covered by in-kind donations from several local contractors.
A number of other community members have stepped up and committed to $75,000 in private donations. At the January school board meeting, board members approved placing $100,000 into the field project and $95,000 into track maintenance and repairs. This money is coming out of the deferred maintenance fund which is set aside dollars for upkeep and improvements of district properties. This leaves approximately $100,000 that still needs to be secured for the field project (the track project is not calculated into the $1.3 million turf project).
Several local fund-raisers are in the works and donations from local community members have started. Additional grant funds are also being sought from multiple foundations like the Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust, the Meyer Memorial Trust, the Oregon Community Foundation and the Ford Family Foundation to name a few. However, we need your help to raise the final $100,000.
Donations can be sent to the Sweet Home Community Foundation (checks should be made out to the foundation and identified for the Turf Project) and mailed to PO Box 24, Sweet Home, OR 97386. Efforts are in the works to set up a way to donate to the project electronically through the Sweet Home Community Foundation website. Information on this possibility will be coming in the next week or two.
With your support the required funds will be secured by July 1, 2015. This is when the grass turf removal begins.
The entire project will be completed by Sept. 1, 2015. If you have any questions please direct them to Project Coordinators, Larry Horton (541) 619-2683 or Milt Moran (541) 409-1903.
Thank you for your support!
Larry Horton
Sweet Home