BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — Board of Education members are not planning a “Giants Stadium” type of artificial turf for the high school football field in the proposed referendum.
“There’s been a misconception,” said school board President Ronald Grayzel at the Sept. 14 board meeting.
“Many people, when they hear that we’re putting in an artificial surface, they think of some Giants Stadium extravagance,” he said. “I’ve even heard that we’re supposedly building some kind of football stadium.”
The meeting featured a presentation by John Cathcart, the high school athletic director, and William Squires, an artificial turf fields expert who has worked for or consulted with the Yankees, Giants and Jets, among others.
The plan calls not for a football stadium but for a multi-purpose replacement field that would accommodate daily use year-round by football, field hockey, soccer and even the school marching band.
Aside from meaning that high school football could move back to the high school, the short-term higher costs would be far outstripped by the eventual savings an artificial surface would provide, Squires said
The district’s architectural firm, EI Associates, Cedar Knolls, has estimated the cost of installing a new grass field at $1.5 million, and an artificial surface at $1.9 million.
Squires said that, once installed, a turf field can last from eight to 12 years of daily use with relatively little maintenance He put the maintenance costs at between $5,000 and $6,000 a year.
EI Associates has estimated the costs of maintaining a new grass field at more than $52,000 annually.
Cathcart agreed.
“I can’t tell you how many hours we spend out there on just one [grass] field,” he said.
Unlimited use would be a huge plus for a borough with limited space for school and other athletic programs, Cathcart said.
After four months of use, the football field at the Edgar School had to be shut down for months to allow the grass to regrow, he said.
Other cost benefits could include
savings on insurance deductibles, uniform laundering and replacement, transportation costs and even potential revenue generated from holding home playoff and championship games.
The surface itself is known as infill turf, which consists of polyethylene “grass” fibers attached to a surface of sand and ground rubber.
“I’ve been researching artificial surfaces for the past five years,” Cathcart said. “There hasn’t been a high school in the state that’s put in an artificial field that I haven’t visited, and spoken with the players and the coaches.”
Squires agreed with EI’s reports that the infill turf would be every bit as safe for athletes as a well-maintained grass field, and significantly safer than a poorly maintained grass field.
Another advantage is that the uneven ground and inconsistencies in a natural grass surface such as the one in place now would be eliminated, resulting in better athletic performances, he said.
“It’s mostly weeds, it’s not even grass,” Cathcart said of the current field, “You don’t get a true bounce or roll.”
Another plus is the drainage system installed under the field, Squires said.
“You’ll never get a rain-out,” he said. “You could have a torrential downpour and be able to play on it five minutes later.”
It’s important that residents understand that artificial turf is not an extravagance, Grayzel said.
“It is now a conventional solution for towns with an enormous number of kids and limited space,” he said.