Field replacement delayed for year
The Golden Tornado football team will play another season at Art Bernardi Stadium before its turf is replaced.
The Butler School Board wanted to replace the field this summer, but enough complications arose while arranging a contractor that the gridiron must suffice for another year.
In May, the board received three bids through a cooperative state contract program. Directors voted 5-3 to accept a $435,000 bid from a company called A-Turf.
Soon after, the three competing contractors got into a dispute over the amount of turf budgeted in A-Turf's bid, according to the district's solicitor, Tom King. The other contractors, ProGrass and FieldTurf, “contested whether A-Turf was using enough turf to cover the field,” King said.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the district rejected all of those three options and went out to a normal bid process,” King said.
After the second bidding process began, the delay spurred concerns that the project would interfere with the upcoming football season. Superintendent Brian White said the group felt the process “might work,” but didn't want to risk the team's season.
“Why rush the process if it's going to make the field unusable?” White said.
Formal contract bids were supposed to be opened Friday, but now the process is on hold without a rescheduled date.
Nick Morelli, the district's acting director of business services, said they're likely to ask for bids again in the fall. They believe, he said, they'll be able to get a lower price then.
White said contractors indicated prices would be more competitive if the district went out to bid in the fall, as it's well in advance of the planned summer construction.
The board decided to cancel the bid process in late June, Morelli said, but had already arranged the legal notices of the bid process that have since been published in the Butler Eagle.
The current football field surface is 12 years old, according to King.
A new turf is likely to cost about $430,000 to $450,000, Morelli said, but the price could drop with the new schedule.Work would hopefully begin, White said, the day after high school graduation in 2019.Morelli said the fibers of the turf are separating and fraying, and years of play have flattened the rubber base under the turf, leaving it hardened and springless.“It's definitely at the end of its life cycle,” Morelli said.Head football coach Eric Christy said that in practices this summer the field has satisfied the team's needs.“We've been on it all summer, and it seems it hasn't degraded too much,” Christy said.He noted a few spots on the field show its age, but that it's still usable today.“It's been a blessing so far,” Christy said.While the majority of the school board appears willing to replace the turf, there was some dissent in recent meetings. The board's meeting minutes for the May 14 meeting, where the initial A-Turf bid was accepted, note that Director John Conrad “would like to know why we are replacing the field if it is still usable.” Conrad, along with Bill Halle and Nina Teff, voted against the A-Turf bid that evening.Besides football games and practices, the field is used for gym classes and other athletic activities throughout the year.
