Bronxville Boosters Begin Raising Funds For Artificial Turf

Courtesy of The Journal News
Writen by David McKay Wilson
November 12, 2005

Bronxville sports boosters have begun raising $1.8 million to fund the installation of artificial turf and a new track for Chambers Field, the district's main sports facility, where heavy usage makes it difficult for natural grass to thrive.

The boosters are revising the details as they go. They decided to eliminate lighting and add a second artificial turf practice field on the so-called Christmas Tree lot next to Chambers Field.

While the school board hasn't approved the plans, the trustees told parents to solicit funds to gauge support for the private effort. They will report on their progress Thursday, said school board President John Preising.

"We blessed them to look into it and see what they could do," he said. "We haven't approved the project and wouldn't approve it until we've had a community hearing. We don't know where we will come out."

The fundraising effort in Bronxville, which includes a cocktail party on Wednesday at Siwanoy Country Club, for parents of lacrosse players, is the latest attempt to bring artificial turf to a lower Hudson Valley school.

One of the first places artificial turf was first laid down was Mahopac, in 2001. The district is financing the $700,000-plus turf with $50,000 a year from the town of Carmel and another $40,000 a year from Coca-Cola, provided the district sells 10,000 cases of soda annually.

Then came the controversial fill-for-fields deals in 2002 and 2003 in Greenburgh, Valhalla and Eastchester, in which districts bartered their land to dirt haulers who dumped there in exchange for low-cost turf fields.

Since then, districts have relied on private fundraising or sought voter approval to borrow to finance the field projects

• Rye parents in 2004 raised more than $900,000 for artificial turf and lights at Rye High.

• In Rockland's Ramapo Central district, voters in 2004 approved a bond that included $4.8 million for two turf fields, lighting, a new track and other improvements.

• The town of Eastchester this fall borrowed $2.4 million for artificial turf atop a contaminated fill site at Haindl Park, with parents saying they'll raise $800,000 to install lights and locker rooms.

• Chappaqua is still mulling turf for Horace Greeley High. A meeting this summer revealed a real split over whether such a project was necessary. Neighbors near the Greeley campus opposed lighting for the field.

Bronxville's Chambers Field is bordered by single-family homes and a 10-unit townhouse at Field Court, a stately group of attached homes with slate roofs. When the school board okayed the parental fundraising move earlier this month, the plan included lighting, which would extend practice time until 8 p.m. on weeknights.

Field Court resident Loukis Louka, who said last week residents were still waiting to see an official proposal, doesn't want lights on the field.

"It's not a good idea," he said. "It will just attract more people. Now, when it's dark here, it's peaceful. I like that."

On Wednesday, lighting was removed from the project, said Athletic Director Karen Peterson,

"We haven't had a good dialogue about what lights would mean, so we are taking the lights off the table," she said. "Right now the lights aren't included. That would be a separate piece."

The new plan comes more than a year after a group of Bronxville parents, school administrators, and community members began discussing artificial turf. They persuaded the Bronxville PTA to donate $30,000 to help fund a feasibility study, which detailed plans costing up to $4 million.

The current field is used so much that it turns muddy when it rains. The field was in such poor condition in October that the Bronxville Broncos played their home playoff soccer game on Eastchester High's artificial turf.

"Chambers Field is pretty terrible," said football team member Charlie Donner. "There's not a lot of grass and it gets really muddy. I'd love to play regularly on turf."

Santoro said the turf field would provide a durable facility in a densely populated village where there's no land to create new athletic fields. While some high schools reserve their football fields for games once a week, Bronxville's Chambers Field is used for practices and games for soccer and football, both for high and middle school. Physical education teachers conduct classes there and elementary students play there at recess.

"Chambers Field gets 66 hours of use a week, and with that kind of usage, your grass quality will decline," she said. "By changing the surface, we will make it more usable, for more children."