Lincoln-Way Community High School District Turf Wars: Synthetic Is The Winner
The Herald News - Chicago
Written by
Charla Brautigam
September 25, 2005
NEW LENOX -- Synthetic turf may be more costly to install than traditional grass, but it should save the user money in the long-run through reduced maintenance costs, Lincoln-Way Community High School District officials were told this week.
According to school district projections, it will cost the district about $350,000 more to install synthetic turf at each football stadium but $22,620 less each year to maintain it.
Over 20 years, administrators expect to save the district about $372,321 at each school.
"It will cost you more to build (the fields) at the front end," Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie told the school board this week, but synthetic turf "starts saving you money."
The district plans to use proceeds from a recent land sale at Cedar and Laraway roads to install artificial turf at the Lincoln-Way Central's football stadium and ask voters to fund similar improvements at Lincoln-Way East and two future high schools by approving an upcoming referendum.
The March referendum seeks $225 million to build and equip two new schools in New Lenox and Frankfort Square and to renovate Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln-Way Central.
Administrators estimate it will cost between $700,000 and $750,000 to install artificial turf at each school.
To be sure Lincoln-Way Central and Lincoln-Way East remain equitable, administrators plan to go ahead and install synthetic turf at both schools next spring by borrowing money from the Cedar and Laraway land sale (which generated $11.5 million for the district) to pay for the improvements.
The money will be repaid if the March referendum is successful.
Bids are currently being solicited, and administrators plan to begin preparing the fields for synthetic turf at the end of the 2005 football season.
They should be ready for use at graduation time next spring.
Frankfort chiropractor and athletic trainer Aaron Wolfe, who works with the professional soccer team Chicago Fire, told school board members Thursday night that they won't regret installing the shock-absorbing synthetic turf.
Not only is it easier to maintain, but it reduces the number of catastrophic injuries, he said, such as concussions and shoulder dislocations.
"All the (athletic) trainers love it," he said, pointing to a recent study by Texas A&M that found higher incidences of head trauma and ligament injures on natural grass than synthetic turf.
He cautioned residents not to confuse the synthetic turf with the orginal AstroTurf®, a carpet-type material that was used years ago and that some criticized for tearing up knees and elbows on contact.
"That's not the same type of turf they're marketing now," said Wolfe, who prefers synthetic turf over grassy playing fields because it provides more give than natural fields.
Today's synthetic turf is made from soft polyethylene "alloy" fibers that are planted firmly in several inches of ground cryogenic rubber and silica sand.
The sand and rubber create a natural cushion, similar to the one students enjoy on Lincoln-Way's running tracks. Wolfe predicts there will come a time that all football fields will be lined with synthetic turf.
"All schools will go to this," he told the board.
