Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Southington wants artificial turf

The MRJs Leslie Hutchison reports on the desire of some in Southington to get artificial turf for SHS:

"This can't be put back any further. This is so necessary for the community," said John J. Fontana, chairman of the Board of Park Commissioners...

"We are in an emergency mode," he said. "This needs to be done for the youth of this town."

The cost of an artificial turf field would be about $750,000, according to Courtney Reim, a turf saleswoman from ProGrass LLC of Pittsburgh.

Several speakers at the forum explained how the turf surface would allow more games, more often and for more teams.

(AD) Swallow said when he was hired six months ago, he was concerned about the condition of the field. "We're in a crisis mode with our facilities," he said.

Meriden's new turf field that opened in mid-September cost $4 million, with a state grant covering half the cost and the city paying the $2 million balance.

FWIW, the $4 million included stuff besides turf, such as bleachers.

Tim White

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We are in an emergency mode,"

Huh??
We are in a deep recession and they are in an emergency mode for artificial turf?
What is wrong with these people who feel it is so necessary to get artificial turf?
If the towns don't take care of the grass fields, how will they take care of a $1 million artificial turf field?
How much would it cost to re-sod the field every couple of years?? Still has to be cheaper.

Mr. Fontana (you can interchange names with Altieri, Ecke or Trifone) needs to re-look at his priorites and should not use the word "emergency" when talking about a field!

Anonymous said...

Maybe they should sell naming rights to Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers?....ooops!

Anonymous said...

"It needs to be done for the Youth of the town". He should think a little more about the youth. By the way, did he attend the same conference that our AD attended? What is this a turf epidemic?

Anonymous said...

“It needs to be done for the Youth of the town” is an incorrect statement. The correct statement, for both Southington and this town is more like:

“ it needs to be done for local special interests like developers and realtors trying to attract out of town home buyers with great schools and wonderful football fields and groups of local contractors who might be hired to work on the installation and maintenance.”

Existing local tax payers, well too bad, someone needs to pay the bills.

Anonymous said...

I think Fontana was an ex coach at SHS

Anonymous said...

the city paying the $2 million balance.


The state paying $2,000,000 of the $4,000,000 price for Meridens turf field is just an example of how the state wastes money and why it is headed for over !,000,000,000 in new deficits.

The state legistlative members are out of control and the big spenders should be kicked out of office.

Anonymous said...

Whenever you hear,
"It's for the children!",
hold onto your wallet.