Facility&Operations Money-saving tips from parks & rec...

24 SportsTurf | July 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com

➲ SHARE EQUIPMENT “Working in the public sector definitely

has it challenges. The greatest and most obvi-ous is the ever-shrinking budgets and thechore of doing more with less as members ofthe community still demand services at thehighest possible level. One way to help us

achieve the continued high level of serviceis by reaching out to other mu-

nicipalities in our area byprimarily theborrowing of

equipment. Whether it is a tractor or an aera-tor, this practice has been done with 4-5communities in the greater Portland, MEarea for the past 10 years. Individually eachcommunity cannot have all the necessaryequipment but together it is surprising whatis available just by picking up the phone andasking. This version of networking with othercommunities has helped each community inwhich they need help to achieve their goals inproviding quality services. I would stronglyurge other communities to start reaching outto others, whether other parks and rec oreven golf courses. Again, communities don’twant to lose services, so it is our job to thinkoutside of the box and keep services at thelevel community members expect.”-Rick Per-ruzzi, CSFM, CPRP, Wainwright RecreationComplex, South Portland, ME

➲ BE TRAINED IN TREE REMOVAL“One way we save thousands of dollars

throughout the season is through tree re-moval. I was lucky enough to be trained bya highly skilled tree feller at my old job at agolf course. Since then, I have also taken a40-hour training session through Stihl Cor-poration. I have now trained my staff in theproper techniques to fell live, dead andstorm damaged trees. Other than situationsnear power lines, we pretty much handleeverything in house.”-Shane Young, CSFM,Prince William County Park Authority,Woodbridge, VA

➲ INSTALL FENCING FOR SAFETY“When fencing [for] athletic fields is in-

stalled, make sure the mesh fabric is fastenedon the inside or field side of the posts. This isto soften the blow when contact is madeby the player. Also on Little League and base-ball fields, the outfield and foul territoryfencing should be a minimum of 6 feet high,and the higher the better. This is all to helpprevent serious injury from occurring when

participants come in contact with fencing.”-Stephen G. Matuza, CGCS, Master Green-keeper, CSFM and much more, for TheFarm at Oyster Bay, Syosset, NY

➲ USE VOLUNTEERS“I do make extensive use of volunteers in

the sports organizations for some mainte-nance like raking the baseball infieldareas. And some volunteers have businessesthat are willing to donate grass seed and fer-tilizer throughout the year.”-Dudley Rice,CPRP, CPSI, Solebury Township Parks &Recreation, Solebury, PA

➲ COMMUNICATE TO REDUCEWASTED TIME

“Good communication and proper plan-ning with your staff results in the desiredresult of the work that is to be done. Com-municating with your staff about what needsto be done and the time frame that is ex-pected will reduce the amount of wasted timeby not having the right tools and equipmentfor the task. And it will reduce wasted tripsback to the shop for anything that was for-gotten. Lack of communication results inwork not being done to the standard that wasexpected, along with having to take moretime to redo the task.”-Jason Moore CSFM,Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District,Beaverton, OR

➲ GOING GREEN SAVESYOU GREEN

“Convert outside area/security lighting tosolar lighting. We are in the process of evenplacing solar up-lighting at flagpoles. Reducemaintained turf areas to minimize costs(mowing, fertilizer, irrigation, etc). Even cate-gorize the remaining areas as athletic use,multi-use, and passive use to justify changesin maintenance practices.

Reduce the amount of overhead irriga-tion where possible, use micro irrigation.Change out interior lighting, HVAC, etc tomore efficient modern models. There areseveral grant opportunities still out therefor energy conservation.

Stop using huge trucks (3/4 ton andlarger) for every job. Replace what you canwith smaller trucks and alternative fuel andhybrids.”-Joel McKnight, CGCS, CPRP

El Paso General Services Dept., ElPaso, TX ■

Facility&Operations

Money-saving tips from parks & rec pros

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IN CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL PARK AND RECREATION MONTH, STMAhas asked several sports turf managers who work in parks and recreation to share their toptips for cost savings and effectiveness.


Facility&Operations | By Eric Schroder

The panel began by assuring theaudience that some day every syn-thetic turf field will need to be re-placed.

In response to a question on al-ternatives to SBR rubber infill, thepanel cited research saying thecrumb rubber is safe and noted thatsome areas don’t allow crumb rub-ber as infill, in New York City andLos Angeles, for example. Alterna-tive infills cost significantly morethan crumb rubber, it was noted.

Daily of the Bengals said theNFL currently has no policy re-garding whether its playing surfacesshould be natural turf or synthetic.He advised that if rain is forecastthe day of an event on your syn-thetic field you should cover thefield if possible, though Dailynoted that he has the luxury of thetime and money to do this.

He said he is more aggressivenow with grooming the field inCincinnati, hitting it three times aweek during the NFL season. Headded that the Bengals also practiceon the game field, unlike manyNFL teams, and that makes a dif-ference. “I can see the difference ifwe can’t drag it,” he said.

In response to another question,Daily said wavy lines can some-

times be an issue and recommendsusing a broom to straighten thelines. He said firm but not hard isthe goal and that too much groom-ing makes the field too soft and notenough grooming makes it toohard. After 7 years, Daily’s field isshowing signs of age and its Gmaxrating has risen.

Daily also said his field wasmanufactured before the newmonofilament products now invogue, and that he has heard com-plaints about “moving infill” insome of these fields at the NFLlevel. “All fibers are going to layover regardless of what kind it is,”Daily said.

Another point the panel madesure was heard is that maintenanceis necessary for synthetic fields.“No maintenance” claims arewrong and everyone knows it.

On the topic of cooling downthe synthetic infill fields, Daily saidthe water cannons at his field aregreat but they don’t work to coolthe field. He uses them as part ofhis maintenance practices, hitting15-20 minutes per station, saying itcleans the fibers and the infill andkeeps debris off the field. He triesto get everything as clean as he can,he said.

Putting moisture into the sand and rubber gives players afeel they like, Daily said, they can feel their cleats going in andout and it’s not sticky. “Later in the season I might cut downbecause there’s already moisture, like if it snows.”

Daily said his field has experienced less static as it has aged. The panel agreed that 8-year warranties are now the industry

standard.When a field is between 8 and 11 years old, if it has been

subject to sunlight 365 days a year, the UV rays will start tobreak down the fibers, Daily said. He said to get maximumyears out of your synthetic turf you should groom it less, andthat a field’s location also makes a difference. A Texas field ab-sorbs a more intense UV ray than one in New Hampshire, forexample, so theoretically the NH field would last longer.

Serensits cited research at PSU, where they have tested shoeson their synthetic turf plots, that showed flat-soled shoes willwear a field faster than cleats.

One attendee wondered if someday there would be an envi-ronmentally related tax to pay to process the old infill material.A panel member responded that equipment exists that can re-move 65-70% of the old infill; it is cut up and put in a landfilland that he knew of no current issues with that practice.

Another attendee, from Cincinnati, said a nearby cementplant was causing abrasions to his field’s fibers and was told hehad to just keep flushing that unwanted material through the

Synthetic turfupdate fromSTMA ConferenceAT THE SYNTHETIC TURF UPDATE SESSION STMA hosted last January, a panel answeredquestions from the audience. The panel includedWebb Cook, president of Sprinturf, Darian Daily ofthe Cincinnati Bengals, Shawn Mahonski of TowsonUniversity, and Tom Serensits of Penn State’s Centerfor Sports Surface Research.

The panel agreed that 8-year warranties are now the industry standard.

SportsTurf 27www.stma.org

system. The panel expressed more concernabout the number of sticks and sunflowerseeds and god-knows what else that regularlymust be removed from these fields.

Mahonski said at Towson that outsidegroups, particularly soccer and lacrosseleagues, renting his facility sign for responsi-bility if the field needs to be cleaned afterthey use it. The bill to clean the field? Ma-honski said about $1,700. He recommendedeveryone put language doing the same in alltheir contracts.

Mahonski said he knows a guy whogrooms his field every day and that he’s wear-ing out the 4-year-old field.

Cook said manufacturers’ manuals mostoften recommend grooming every 4 to 6weeks. The GreensGroomer product wasmentioned for the second time by an audi-ence member as being an effective groomer.This one said he saves his field from wear bysetting the brush height differently and light-ens the setting on his machine and also byadjusting the tension.

The panel recommended removing leaves

ASAP, using air such as a pull-behind blower,to get them off. Handhelds work too, nomatter what leaves need to “leave” in a hurry.

A machine from Redexim Charterhousealso was mentioned by an attendee who saidits rotary brush helped bring the rubber anddebris up off the surface and the rubber isthen shaken back out, which works for him.A panelist recommended a magnet attach-ment to pull out metal, and showed a slidewith more than a handful of hairpins andworse pulled from the surface.

STUDIES ON PROLONGING LIFE?The panel said that infill material gets

harder over time and the carpet fibers wear,though it was noted that the newer fields’fibers are wearing better while some ques-tions remain as to their longevity.

Cook said, “After 4 or 5 years, I recom-mend that once a year you spend the $5,000it costs for a professional, deep-cleaning serv-ice to help prolong your field’s life. Youshould work this cost into the budget for theproject upfront.”

This deep cleaning also includes tining ofthe field and added infill to bring downGmax numbers. A growing number of con-tractors nationwide are getting into the busi-ness of cleaning the ever-increasing numberof synthetic fields being built annually.

The panel cited it is important to havestrength and other coaches rotate the spotsthey use repetitively on the field. Anotherpoint was made on the wisdom of a $15,000fence to protect a $750,000 investment in asynthetic field. Companies are happy to re-place damaged, or as in the case in Canadarecently stolen, turf but it will cost you.

An audience member said he knew of a 6-year-old field in New Hampshire that hadbeen dragged in the same direction the entiretime and was left with a “not good” situa-tion. He recommended changing it up,going corner to corner, side to side, northand south, and don’t set the machine to gotoo deep so as not to disturb the seams,whether glued or sewn. ■


Facility&Operations

MARK FREVER, CSFM,Albion College (MI)

Pre-mow surface with rotary mower thathas side discharge or capable of bagging.

Clean nozzle tips or replace worn tips forconsistent width of painted line.

From start to finish, pull lines withstring, preferably offset.

A local soccer club parent had the idea toreduce the frequency of painting lines—hewould just add a touch of glyphosate to thepaint. After 2 weeks of painting he reducedthe turf but had to continue painting baresoil. Consequently, the bare soil lines be-came trip hazards until they filled in withweeds.

ALLEN JOHNSON, CSFM, Green Bay Packers

No disruptions from extra activity liketeam walk-throughs, extra event practices,etc. during application.

Make sure there is drying time and goodweather if possible.

Have the correct number of people to dothe job right.

I hate to admit this, but I inadvertentlypainted the “G” on Lambeau’s 50-yard lineupside down once. The error was caught by

one of our stadium chefs who was looking atthe field from one of the luxury suites. I wasvery, very glad that someone noticed andbrought it to our attention with plenty oftime to correct the error. Ironically the upsidedown G looks like an “e” and we happened tobe hosting the Philadelphia Eagles. Someonewas looking out for me on that day.

DAVID M. PRESNELL, CSFM, Gainesville (GA) Parks & Recreation

A good surface. You need healthy turf-grass that is mowed at a good height.

Be prepared. Always check weather, haveall supplies on hand, mix paint properly andpaint as close to the event as possible.

Be precise. ALWAYS pull strings/sled &use stencil. Always measure everything andcheck it twice. Straight lines and crisp logosmake all the difference.

I have seen and been a part of all kinds ofsmall mishaps. Everything from spillingpaint, string getting pulled on wrong side andputting arrows on the wrong side of numbers.The biggest one was when we were paintingan end zone logo and someone was blowingclippings off with a tractor and blower. Theguys painting went to refill the paint and be-

fore you knew it the tractor went thru thelogo (not once but twice) and tracked redand white paint everywhere. Thank good-ness it was water-based.

SHAUN ILTEN, Home Depot Center (CA)

Make sure all equipment is runningproperly and have all the required toolsneeded for the job (tips, measuring tapes,nails/stakes, string, fuel, proper paint etc.)

Double check all your measure-ments—make sure all your points are ac-curate and making sure your field issquared.

Proper communication with your staffduring the field painting work, whichmeans being aware of each individual taskis being accomplished properly.

The worst painting disaster I was in-volved would have to be when I waspainting a standard football field for ahigh school game. I was painting yardlines when I reached my last three yardlines to go, when I noticed that one of myyard lines was severely angled. One of myco- workers had skipped a marker andwent to the next one so one side was 5yards and the other side was 10 yards!This could have been avoided with propercommunication and double checking allmy measurements making sure that everyyard line that I paint is accurate.

KEVIN MALONE, CSFM,Columbia University

Have enough prior notice from athlet-ics to complete the task when weatherand conditions are most favorable.

Ensure the sprayer is in tip top shapeand working properly.

Using high quality paint.I would say the worst disaster would

be just before my taking this position, thelacrosse lines that are supposed to bepainted with removable paint werepainted with a permanent product! Ittook many gallons of Goof Off, paint re-mover, you name it and many, manyhours of scrubbing to finally remove thepaint. Columbia only wants football lineson the main fields during the game sea-son. Hopefully that will never happenagain! ■

Field painting tips& disaster stories

What 3 factors do you considermost important to completingfield painting work efficientlyand successfully?

What is the worst painting disaster you’ve ever been involved with or seen happen?

Q:

Q:


Facility&Operations | By Max Utsler

Well ol’ Mike has retired and, for themost part, you’ll never have to worry aboutsomeone else from “60 Minutes” headingto your 3rd base coach’s box and askingwhat caused that giant mushroom cloud.But the recent explosion of new media out-lets combined with the more traditionalmedia outlets has led to a whole new armyof reporters who just might be interested inhow you handle (or don’t handle) yourbusiness. That growth of media outlets hasre-emphasized for every potential news-maker, the importance of knowing how todeal with the media, or as you should thinkof it, defending your “turf.”

Back when you were much younger(probably only five or 10 years ago), youcould assess potential media coverage byconsidering the local newspaper, the localtalk radio station and the local TV newsoutlet. You knew the reporters by nameand by sight, and they knew you. Youshopped at the same stores, ate at the samerestaurants and told similar stories abouthow high your golf handicap should be.Ahhhh, life was so simple then.

Then along came the internet and yourworld turned upside down. You quicklymoved into the age of instant news and theself-appointed, citizen journalist. Thought-ful, edited journalism gave way to “seat-of-the-pants” journalism. Fact-based reportinggave way to opinion and commentary. Youhave now entered a world of bloggers, twit-terers and whole bunch of ‘ers that haven’teven been invented yet. Better get ready.

The first step in dealing with this hyper-speed news media cycle is to do what youshould have been doing all along—play of-fense. Most newsmakers love to contact

the media when they bring “good news.”Your department received an award froman environmental organization, check.Number of turf-related injuries reduced inthe past 12 months, check. You come upwith an innovative way of watering theplaying fields, check. Those are all validstories, and you should contact the localmedia to get the word out.

But what happens when the news is notso good or just downright bad? Many or-ganizations follow a, “if we just don’t feedit, maybe it will go away” philosophy. Toy-ota and BP pretty much took that ap-proach in recent months. Now that workedwell, didn’t it?

Had those organizations taken moreearly ownership of the story, each wouldhave greatly reduced the self-inflicted pub-lic relations damage. Yes, the news wouldhave been truly negative in the early days,but maybe, just maybe, if they had achance to advance their version of whathappened, perhaps the media might haveseen another side and soft-pedaled some ofthe criticism. You could argue that wouldbe a losing proposition. And the “just ig-nore it” plan was not?

In all likelihood you will never face thatkind of major crisis. But one way to keep aminor crisis from becoming a major one isto initiate the coverage. Let’s look at someexamples that you could encounter: in-juries grow as poor lighting hampers yourkey fields; staph infections develop in play-ers using the synthetic turf fields; orbleachers fail during kids’ soccer game

If the media get a tip on what happenedin any of those cases, you will be playingdefense, answering the “How could you

ever let that happen?” question. You knowwhat it’s like when a parent or coach de-cides to escalate something that you thinkis rather insignificant. Things can get outof hand in a hurry.

Now let’s take a look at how to initiatecoverage and frame each of those stories ina more positive way.

• The lighting on River Bend Field ismore than 30 years old. We haven’t beenable to find parts to repair some of the bro-ken units. As a result the illumination isabout half of what it should be. That hasled to a number of recent injuries. We neednew lights, but that is going to cost morethan $200,000. This is a bad time to beasking the city for more money. We mayhave to stop using that field.

• A local pediatrician recently contactedus and said he had been treating a numberof kids with staph infection. He had dis-covered that all of them were soccer playerswho play their games on the synthetic sur-face at Partridge Park. Once he called thatto our attention we were able to use a non-toxic chemical sweeper to rid those fields ofpotential problems. The surface is cleanand ready for its heavy fall use.

• Fortunately no one was hurt seriously,but three parents had to seek medical at-tention when the front row of woodenbleachers snapped during a girls’ softballgame. That incident has prompted us tobegin inspecting every row of every set ofbleachers we have at our 73 facilities. Wewill have the full inspection completed bythe end of the week.

The process follows a very simple for-mula. Admit the wrongdoing then explainhow you will keep it from happeningagain. If you admit to the problem, it’s veryhard for the reporter to keep beating youup over it. Deny the problem, and the re-porter will go after you like crabgrass onzoysiagrass.

This all starts from a premise that if youare a part of a story that has legitimate pub-lic interest, you have a responsibility to beaccessible to the media. This is especiallytrue if you work for a taxpayer-supported,government body like many of you do.

While the process begins with initiatingthe coverage, your job is far from finished.Now you must handle the interview. Fol-

“turf”Defending your

AN OLD JOKE made its way through e-mail a few years back. It was some-thing like, “You know it’s a bad day when you wake up in the morning,

and Mike Wallace and a “60 Minutes” crew are perched on your front porch.”


low the ADSR approach in executing therest of the process. The first step is Antici-pate. You’ve been to enough movies andseen enough TV cop shows to have a goodidea of what that reporter will be askingyou. Run through the journalist’s checklistof the Five W’s and the H. You can easilyanswer the “who, what, when and where”questions. They are very fact-oriented andnot subject to much interpretation. Developa handout of facts about the story to give tothe reporter. That will save time as well asimprove the reporter’s accuracy. Considerthe visual possibilities for this particularstory. Take the reporter to the “where.” Youwill get more coverage and decrease the pos-sibility of a misinterpretation.

The “why and how” questions will bemuch more subjective and the likely focus ofan interview. To handle the why and howquestions, you must move to the Develop anAgenda stage. Decide what you are going tosay before the start of the interview. This isthe message you want to get across. It shouldaddress the reporter’s question but be totally

based on what is best for you and your or-ganization. Use it in a pre-interview as well asthe one where the camera is rolling or the re-porter is taking notes. Never say “No com-ment.” That never looks or sounds good. Ifyou can’t answer give a substantive reasonsuch as “This is currently going through thecourts, and I wouldn’t want to jeopardizethat process,” or “We don’t have the answerto that right now, but we should know morein the next 48 hours.” Never ask to go “offthe record.” Every reporter and source seemsto have a different idea of what that means. Ifyou must say something but don’t want yourname associated with it, be very clear whentalking to the reporter. This is no time forsubtlety.

The execution of the agenda comes nextso remember to Speak in Bites. The worldof TV is built on 10 to 15 second soundbites. Learn to speak that language and useit for radio, newspapers and online inter-views as well as TV. Here’s why. A 15 sec-ond bite will undoubtedly be narrowlyfocused (as in, focused on your agenda).

You won’t have time to move off the sub-ject. The 15 second bite also greatly reducesyour chance of being misquoted. Give a 60second answer and expect the reporter toget down every word—not a chance. Use apersonal experience or anecdote to get yourpoint across. Don’t be afraid to express yourfeelings and show some emotion. Just don’tallow yourself to move into the melodra-matic. Think 15 seconds as your time limitfor every question the reporter asks. Keepthe focus on your agenda.

The final stage is Repetition. Know howto get your agenda across. Keep repeating it.Address the reporter’s question briefly, andthen bring it back to your agenda.

If you follow those steps, you will in-crease your confidence in handling any kindof a media situation. ■

Dr. Max Utsler teaches journalism at theUniversity of Kansas. He is a former TV jour-nalist and has trained business executives inhow to deal with the media for the past 25years.


Facility&Operations | By Hal Phillips

WHEN LEOPECHETTEarrived at LakesCommunity

High School in the exurbsnorthwest of Chicago, hethought he’d stepped into agrounds manager’s dream. Itwas the fall of 2003, and thisbrand new high school had justseeded its brand-spanking-newfootball field.

Nearly every grounds man-ager looks upon an inheritedathletic field with some meas-ure of trepidation: How old isthe irrigation system really, andhow sophisticated were theoriginal construction tech-niques? How often has the fa-cility been aerated, if at all?

Where exactly are the drainagetrouble spots, and how does thefield generally bounce backfrom heavy rains, especially be-tween the hash marks?

Pechette had plenty of wor-ries at the start in ramping upall the athletic facilities servinga brand new high school. Butthe new football field shouldn’thave been among them.

Indeed, because Lakes Com-munity High was a completelynew school, and didn’t evenachieve full occupancy until themiddle of 2004, the footballfield accommodated no playwhatsoever until the 2005 sea-son. That’s an initial fall grow-in period, plus some 16 monthsof unfettered grow-in/root

growth before a game was everplayed.

You can see where this isgoing.

“We didn’t play on the fielduntil the fall of 2005,” saysPechette, looking back, “andthat was a dry fall. It lookedgreat. But the next year we hadwet summer and that contin-ued into the early fall of 2006.It didn’t take long before wewere clued in to just how badthe drainage was.

“It just wasn’t built as it wasdesigned, we learned. The con-tractor had short-cutted thesand depth, for example. Theway they graded the field, itsettled poorly after a series ofrainfalls. A lot of shortcuts were

taken which, as far as I’m con-cerned, means the job wasn’tsupervised properly. The con-tractor did a lot of road con-struction. Enough said onthat.”

You can see where this isgoing.

Pechette and Lakes Com-munity High School wereobliged to rebuild after justfour seasons of play. The$150,000 reconstruction washandled by Lohmann SportsFields (LSF) out of Marengo,IL. Based on plans by the Ver-non Hills, IL-based engineeringfirm Gewalt-Hamilton,Lohmann re-crowned the fieldby installing a tapered sand cap,while adding soil amendmentsto achieve the proper, drainage-enabling soil profile and a bet-ter growing medium. Theperimeter of the field was ag-gressively aerated and top-dressed with the same sandmix, and a 6-inch Multi-Flowdrainage system was installedbeneath the entire field before

Will outsourcing becomethe new normal?Editor’s note: Hal Phillips is a writer for Mandarin Media, a worldwide public relations firm,here representing Lohmann Sports Fields.

A lot of shortcuts were taken which, as far as I’m concerned, means the job wasn’t supervised properly.


Facility&Operations

final grading and re-sodding.“We went with Lohmann’s group because they do this for a liv-

ing,” says Pechette, noting that LSF boasts a client list that rangesfrom local high schools like his, to the Notre Dame Football Sta-dium (re-surfaced in 2008), to the creation of minor league baseballdiamonds from Grand Rapids, MI to Peoria, IL.

“These guys are experts at the big work, but they pay attentionto small details. There were no shortcuts; everything was done ac-cording to the engineering plans from Gewalt-Hamilton. Every-thing was so transparent, and I especially appreciated their payingattention to work-limit areas and not damaging any more thanneed be. Everything was cleaned up so well when they were done.”

You can see where this is going—actually, maybe you don’t. Ifthat were the end of the story, it would be a simple (if not terriblyuncommon) matter of an experienced sports field contractor clean-ing up the mess left behind by a less experienced contractor.

But Lohmann Sports Fields is forging a relationship with LakesCommunity HS that may be unique to sports field management atthe scholastic level because it will continue beyond the initial project.

LSF, along with Gewalt-Hamilton and other consultants arenow formulating an ongoing maintenance schedule at Lakes Com-munity that allows Pechette and his crews to tackle items like aera-tion within the confines of a normal budget cycle.

“This isn’t the sort of thing that the big contractors normally getinvolved with,” said Jim Lohmann, senior project manager at LSF.“But we’ve spent a big chunk of the last 2 years talking to park dis-trict executives, high school athletic directors and recreation direc-tors from across the Midwest. The market is changing. A lot ofthese guys are dealing with long-term budget reductions, meaningthey are looking for new ways to more efficiently (and effectively)care for their sports fields.

“That sounds very general but it’s really quite specific. Theseschool and park districts all have the same maintenance needs.We’ve identified 10 of the most common needs and formulated in-dividual programs to address those needs, each for less than$10,000. This dollar figure is critical. Not all school and park dis-tricts operate identically, but the $10,000 price tag generally falls

below the traditional threshold cost for projects that require a bidprocess.

“In other words, anything more expensive may require a bid, anRFP or months of planning, and a series of approvals from higherup in the bureaucracy.”

Tom Rychlik, a civil engineer with Gewalt-Hamilton, says thatnone of these advances in servicing park and school districts wouldbe possible without an understanding of the public sector hierar-chies and budgeting mechanisms.

“At most public agencies, budgets are not set up for capital im-provements,” Rychlik says. “You need to add maintenance costs an-nually to properly care for a newly built or renovated field, toprotect your investment. Park districts that have an agronomist onstaff already know this, but if you do not—or you are a school dis-trict, which rarely have an agronomist on staff—then this sort ofstrategic outsourcing makes a lot of sense. It’s easier to budget andprovides access to this expertise.”

At Lakes Community H.S., LSF would handle aeration on thisout-sourced basis, if you will. As Lohmann noted, it’s a new highschool and doesn’t have all the equipment on hand to efficientlyprepare its fields, especially at the start and end of the season. Thesame holds true for established schools that are too small to investin such expensive equipment.

“That’s where we see an opportunity to help,” says Lohmann.“We have the equipment, expertise and manpower to knock thesejobs out quickly, on short notice. And the large volume of workthat we do allows us to price the work just as efficiently, especiallywhen schools in the same district contract together.

“Here’s another example of how this sort of out-sourced, ongo-ing maintenance can work: laser-grading,” Lohmann continues.“This is a big expense for park districts and schools. Every yearwhen they’re getting baseball and softball fields ready for the springseason, they fill depressions and grade things off. Over time, the in-field gets built up and is actually higher than the rest of the field, orthe mix gets pushed to the perimeter leading to lip and drainageproblems and a potential rebuild of that field, at some point. That’sexpensive.


“We can laser grade quickly and easily each spring and save mu-nicipal clients the expense of adding materials year after year. Trustme: laser grading is a lot cheaper than buying a load of ball mix andlaying it on there every spring, especially when annually adding mixultimately leads to other problems that can easily be avoided.”

Rychlik noted that Gewalt-Hamilton are engineers, not agrono-mists nor soil scientists. Accordingly, they recommended toPechette the services of Dave Marquardt at Dirt-n-Turf Consulting,Hinckley, IL which has developed its own ongoing relationshipwith Lakes Community HS.

“Dave takes soil samples and provides answers,” Rychlik says. “AtLakes Community, he found the water they use to irrigate had un-suitably high salt content. That means Leo’s annual plan should callfor the laying down of gypsum to counteract the salinity.

“During the construction process, we use consultants like Dirt& Turf to determine what sort of fertilization program to use goingforward, but there is no reason you cannot make those soil findingsand judgments regarding an existing facility… I like to include$2500 for Dave to come out to a facility twice a year to report onsoil strata, both chemistry and physical analysis. Again, no need fora bid and those reports tie in directly to the turf enhancement rec-ommendations. I would say that if you have a good comprehensivemaintenance plan that includes fertilization and overseeding, thenthe cost additions beyond Dave’s time to test and report are mar-

ginal, i.e. $1,000 a year. You’re just dialing in the specific rates thatyou can have confidence are right.”

Pechette has a newly renovated football field, but he’s also com-mitted to the aeration regimen he’s undertaken with LSF. “We’ve al-ready seen a reduction in the amount of turf we’ve had to put down[in repairs]. But the biggest thing is, the field today is a safe field,for the athletes. It used to be a quagmire with 3-4 inch ruts fromthe cleats. Now it gets wet, but never muddy.”

LSF calls its specific ongoing maintenance program “10 under10”, because it details 10 vital projects that cities, park districts andschool systems can undertake to add value and performance to theirsports field inventory. Most important, each project can be exe-cuted for “under” $10,000.

“Don’t get me wrong: We have no problem doing rebuilds likethe one we did at Lakes Community High School, but we’re hon-estly more interested in helping schools and park districts avoid thatsort of major expense,” Lohmann said. “There are several thingsgoing on here. There are some park and school districts that simplydon’t have the equipment or expertise to aerate or laser grade or in-stall quick coupler valves on an irrigation system.

“But there’s another group of districts that might have the ex-pertise but don’t have the budgets, or the political climate, thatallow this sort of work to get approved. The 10 Under 10 programwas designed to get this important work done economically.” ■

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