In NKY, Beechwood, CCH, Dixie, Highlands and Newport/NCC all have turf fields.

 

I think the biggest chunk was paid by private donations?

 

Thats is right with the Northern Ky teams with turf. But to keep it straight, Newport Staduim has turf and funded by the Newport School Board. Newport rents the field out to other teams that want to use it. I know it will not pay for the turf but it does help with some of the cost. Last year i know NCC and Brossart rented the field for games.

Here are the teams that I know have turf.

 

Belfry

Beechwood

Dunbar - Bd of Ed

Henry Clay - Bd of Ed

Highlands

Lex Catholic - Donations

Newport - Bd of Ed

Owensboro - Bd of Ed

Owensboro Catholic - Made a deal with Kentuckty Wesleyan

Tates Creek - Bd of Ed

Trinity - Donations

 

Who else has turf. I wonder how many are used for football only? I know Owensboro has a soccer turf field also.

 

Also how many colleges in KY have turf. I know of the following

Kentucky Wesleyan

Louisville

Morehead

Murray(have they replaced the old turf yet? I know it is in the process)

Western KY

I think the turf is great, but I'm against it ever being paid for with any kind of tax money.

I think the turf is great, but I'm against it ever being paid for with any kind of tax money.

 

If it were shown to be cost effective vs. grass over the life of it, would it change your mind?

Any kind of tax money?? Even the tac money from your local community like sales and property taxes?

Here are the teams that I know have turf.

 

Belfry

Beechwood

Dunbar - Bd of Ed

Henry Clay - Bd of Ed

Highlands

Lex Catholic - Donations

Newport - Bd of Ed

Owensboro - Bd of Ed

Owensboro Catholic - Made a deal with Kentuckty Wesleyan

Tates Creek - Bd of Ed

Trinity - Donations

 

Who else has turf. I wonder how many are used for football only? I know Owensboro has a soccer turf field also.

 

Also how many colleges in KY have turf. I know of the following

Kentucky Wesleyan

Louisville

Morehead

Murray(have they replaced the old turf yet? I know it is in the process)

Western KY

 

I know of a couple you can add to the list:

 

Shelby Valley (Pike Co), paid for privately.

Letcher Co Central (Letcher Co), not sure on the funding.

St. X (Jefferson Co), private funding, obviously.

 

 

And Belfry's turf was paid for by private donations. And being a new school actually cut 150-200k off the cost of the stadium to the BOE.

If it were shown to be cost effective vs. grass over the life of it, would it change your mind?

Of course! But I just don't see that happening without the use of new math. I mean, we are talking about a half million dollars.

Any kind of tax money?? Even the tac money from your local community like sales and property taxes?

Absolutely. If people want the school to have a turf field that badly, they will raise the money either privately or thorugh grants from companies.

I think the turf is great, but I'm against it ever being paid for with any kind of tax money.

 

 

As a fiscal conservative, I understand your thinking, although I don't necessarily agree with it in full. I think each school board has to critically examine the cost of maintaining the real grass; and has to examine what the installation of artificial turf can do for the schools athletic programs. Highlands, being land locked, has always been hurting for athletic fields. It does not have its own bus fleet so it can't just transport kids to outlying fields. The application of Field Turf has enabled not only the football team to practice and play on the main field (while they continue to use Death Valley, they don't use it as much and certainly don't use it when its sloppy, thus keeping it in better shape for the Girls softball team that uses it as their main field), it has been used by the soccer teams when their fields were unusable. Without the Field Turf, the soccer teams would have been forced to practice on their main fields and torn them up. Not only is there the safety factor involved, there would have been increased maintenance costs on the soccer field. The baseball team has also been able to practice on the Field Turf when weather prevented them from practicing at their main field (which is owned by the City). At the end of the day, the installation of Field Turf has benefitted many athletic programs at the school and has decreased maintenance costs for the school district, not just on the football field, but on the other fields also. The ability of all sports to get in their practice time and the maintenance costs for all fields needs to be considered. And I'll also add that a lot of PE classes that had to be cancelled in the past (or more accurately turned into classes with no activity due to no other options) are now able to be conducted on the football field.

 

Furthermore, the Jr. Football League also is now able to play a lot more of it games. In the past, when games were cancelled due to the Highlands football field being wet, we moved games to Rossford or elsewhere and tore the heck out of them. Those fields were already in bad shape and we made them even worse increasing the maintenance costs on them also.

 

While I think we need to be careful in how tax dollars are spent, I'm not sure I'd go as far as you and say that tax dollars should never be spent on the installation of artificial turf. I think each school board should make an intelligent examination of the costs and benefits at each school. I know there have been a whole lot of programs and activities other than the football program that have benefitted from the Field Turf at Highlands. If I can accept cities and counties spending tax dollars on parks, green spaces, picnic areas, tennis courts etc, I can accept schools spending tax dollars on the installation of Field Turf if it will result in kids spending more time getting physical activity and less time playing PlayStation 2 (or 3 or whatever version it currently is) and less time on MySpace. And I firmly believe that the Field Turf has done so in Ft. Thomas.

As a fiscal conservative, I understand your thinking, although I don't necessarily agree with it in full. I think each school board has to critically examine the cost of maintaining the real grass; and has to examine what the installation of artificial turf can do for the schools athletic programs. Highlands, being land locked, has always been hurting for athletic fields. It does not have its own bus fleet so it can't just transport kids to outlying fields. The application of Field Turf has enabled not only the football team to practice and play on the main field (while they continue to use Death Valley, they don't use it as much and certainly don't use it when its sloppy, thus keeping it in better shape for the Girls softball team that uses it as their main field), it has been used by the soccer teams when their fields were unusable. Without the Field Turf, the soccer teams would have been forced to practice on their main fields and torn them up. Not only is there the safety factor involved, there would have been increased maintenance costs on the soccer field. The baseball team has also been able to practice on the Field Turf when weather prevented them from practicing at their main field (which is owned by the City). At the end of the day, the installation of Field Turf has benefitted many athletic programs at the school and has decreased maintenance costs for the school district, not just on the football field, but on the other fields also. The ability of all sports to get in their practice time and the maintenance costs for all fields needs to be considered. And I'll also add that a lot of PE classes that had to be cancelled in the past (or more accurately turned into classes with no activity due to no other options) are now able to be conducted on the football field.

 

Furthermore, the Jr. Football League also is now able to play a lot more of it games. In the past, when games were cancelled due to the Highlands football field being wet, we moved games to Rossford or elsewhere and tore the heck out of them. Those fields were already in bad shape and we made them even worse increasing the maintenance costs on them also.

 

While I think we need to be careful in how tax dollars are spent, I'm not sure I'd go as far as you and say that tax dollars should never be spent on the installation of artificial turf. I think each school board should make an intelligent examination of the costs and benefits at each school. I know there have been a whole lot of programs and activities other than the football program that have benefitted from the Field Turf at Highlands. If I can accept cities and counties spending tax dollars on parks, green spaces, picnic areas, tennis courts etc, I can accept schools spending tax dollars on the installation of Field Turf if it will result in kids spending more time getting physical activity and less time playing PlayStation 2 (or 3 or whatever version it currently is) and less time on MySpace. And I firmly believe that the Field Turf has done so in Ft. Thomas.

 

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

My next door neighbor actually sells Sprint Turf, which I believe is what he put in at Highlands. The price varies greatly with the amount of midfield or endzone art that you want. Also it will depend on how much non-playing field area you want to cover. He did say however that they can finance it the field for a school if they want to go with the new Sprint Turf, which by the way I heard it is great.

 

It would be my guess that Booster BINGO could pay for your field in a very short time frame. Well that is if you are running it legit.

 

If I ever hit the Powerball :banana: all three local schools will get turf fields. :ylsuper:

What's the life of a turf field? I was think 10 years, but Field Turf's warranty is only good for 8 years. If it can objectively be justified that at worst it's a break even deal, I can along with that. I'll even forget that the injury rate on turf is claimed to be higher than on natural grass. My big issue is when we continue to claim that our schools need more money for the education of our children, I believe spending education dollars on sports facilities is a bad idea.

Injuries on the new turf are less, especially knee injuries, than grass. With weather a non factor, that advantage is magnified.

 

Field Turf warranty is for 8 years, and although nobody really knows yet, estimated life is somewhere between 10 and 15 years. I think using 12 years would be a good middle of the road estimate.

 

You have to consider more than just one life cycle of the field to get a real idea of long term cost. The drainage and underlayment is supposed to be good for 50 years (reportedly) or roughly 4 cycles of turf. The cost of turf is declining and estimates are that it will only be 200,000-250,000 dollars to replace the playing surface in 12 years.

 

Factor in at least 25000 per year to maintain a grass field (sometimes much higher), plus the cost of replenishing the base dirt every 7-8 years to keep it fertile and you can begin to see the benefit. No more watering, mowing, painting, fertilizing, reseeding, etc. No more lawn mower repair, maintenance or labor costs.

 

Now, think about the playability advantages for football, soccer, spring baseball, softball, band, etc. Not only can the field be used in all weather and for all practices, it can also be used as rental to other schools and functions when your teams are not using it. When the weather prohibits a neighboring school from having that football playoff game, your stadium is suddenly available and very attractive for use. Youth leagues, soccer leagues, etc. all can use the field and with each new occupancy comes the prospect of concession and rental income.

......Youth leagues, soccer leagues, etc. all can use the field and with each new occupancy comes the prospect of concession and rental income.

Yeah but who wants to ruin a beutiful new field with those "Dang" soccer lines all over the place. :lol:

 

If you have watched Two-A Days, and who hasn't, you will notice that the outfield for the baseball field is turf and it doubles as the football field. I see more and more schools with this sort of layout and think that turf may actually make economic sense for them.

Do the turf fields come prepainted?

Do the turf fields come prepainted?

 

No, they come with the lines/hashes/numbers/markings all sewn in with white turf. They are permanent.