By Steven Stilt
An artificial turf surface will be coming to Centralia High School’s Evers Field later this year.
The CHS Board of Education on Monday approved a contract with Louisiana-based GeoSurfaces for a synthetic turf system at a price of $1,415,000, as well as a $40,000 concrete base. The surface comes with a 12-year warranty.
Among the three companies that gave presentations at previous board meetings, Superintendent Chuck Lane says the GeoSurfaces product stood out for its safety and durability.
“We think it’s a safer product. You don’t slide as much on it as you do on those rubber pellets. It also maintains its integrity for a long length of time. The other companies made good presentations as well. I think any of them would have been fine. This is a little different type of turf, and we’re happy that we’re going to go ahead and try it.”
To cover the costs of the field, the school will utilize alternate revenue bonds which will be paid off with money from the 1 percent sales tax.
Lane says many others besides the school’s football team will benefit from the new surface.
“It’s really going to help our girls’ and boys’ soccer programs. It’s going to help our band program. It’s going to help our spring sports, our baseball and softball teams. When they can’t get on their fields when it’s too wet, they can come out onto this turf field and still practice some. There may be some P.E. uses as well, we kind of got into that a little bit tonight. Overall, it’s going to cut down on a lot of the maintenance that our staff was having to do, traveling down to the old Evers Field for soccer and mowing and maintaining it.”
School officials expect installation of the surface will start after track season wraps up in May, and will be completed before football practice gets underway in late summer.
In other action, the board accepted the resignation of full-time aide Gavin McDonal and assistant girls’ volleyball coach Reanna Phelps. The board approved the employment of Michael McGill as a long-term substitute teacher, Ryan Hargis as an assistant track coach and Dayton Bauer as a full-time annex aide.
