By Cassie Walsh
Paris, Tenn.- The Henry County Board of Education met Thursday and welcomed new director Dr. Leah Watkins and heard from HCHS football Coach James Counce and Henry County Quarterback Club Member Andy Collins about the high school taking the next steps in either installing an artificial turf or replacing the current turf with natural turf again.
Collins said that the club, which is a non-profit, has raised more than $470,000 from fundraising efforts. Collins said that those funds were raised to go towards installing artificial turf at HCHS. He said that the Quarterback Club has been in contact with a couple of companies who said that the preliminary costs for the artificial turf installation at HCHS would cost anywhere from $691,000 to $700,000.
“We have a gap in our funding, we have not sought out a lot of individual donations,” said Collins. “Right now we’re looking at finding a way to close that gap the funding we have.”
Collins and Counce both emphasized how installing the artificial turf would not only hold up better against wear and tear, but if HCHS had artificial turf the school system could charge for events like music festivals or other sporting events to be held there. Collins said that the HC Quarterback Club looked at Dyersburg, who had installed artificial turf. It was noted that since Dyersburg installed artificial turf, the school has been able to rent the stadium for events to be held there and in turn it has generated over $1 million in revenue.
Collins said that the HC Quarterback Club was looking for feedback from the school board to see about taking the next steps into closing the gap in the funding for the artificial turf. He said that he wanted the school board to consider the advantages that the artificial turf could generate for the school.
Counce also told the board that something needs to be done with the field and both men said that there are a lot of drainage issues by the field that need to be addressed no matter whether the school board decides to replace the turf with natural turf or install artificial turf.
Collins said that the natural turf has 12-15 year shelf life depending on how well it’s maintained. He said that the school system budgets around $28,000 for turf maintenance, so over 12 years that would be around $336,000 that could be used towards the project. Counce said that if they did install the artificial turf, he would handle the maintenance of the field.
“Practice field takes a pretty good beating and we need to do something with the field. This is not a war on natural turf… turf gets wrecked a lot more than using artificial turf,” said Collins. “If we installed this, we have to use this not just for football but for other sports like softball, baseball, soccer, etc. The use of the artificial turf would have to be scheduled well and the concessions side could off-set some of the costs associated with installing the artificial turf.”
“We not here asking for money, we are taking about accruing the money that would be used for regular maintenance of the field (natural turf) and putting that money towards installing the artificial turf,” said Collins. “Teams would pay money to play on the artificial turf, because there isn’t the wear and tear on it like a natural turf field would have.”
Money that the Henry County Quarterback Club was raised based on installing artificial turf and will not be used to pay for the replacement of the field with natural turf. Collins said the $700,000 would paid by private donors through the Henry County Quarterback Club so there wouldn’t any taxpayer money being used for it.
Counce said that it would cost replacing the turf with natural turf again would cost between $100,000-$120,000 and those funds would have to be paid for with taxpayer money.
Both men said that the usability of the having a field that had artificial turf would allow the school to host more events, which would also bring in revenue.
“We need the big picture before we commit to either decision, whether we go with replacing what we already have with natural turf,” said Collins.
“We ask a lot of our taxpayers and this is something we can do to make our school better without asking more from our taxpayers,” said board member Josh Frey.
Collins said that the club, which is a non-profit, has raised more than $470,000 from fundraising efforts. Collins said that those funds were raised to go towards installing artificial turf at HCHS. He said that the Quarterback Club has been in contact with a couple of companies who said that the preliminary costs for the artificial turf installation at HCHS would cost anywhere from $691,000 to $700,000.
“We have a gap in our funding, we have not sought out a lot of individual donations,” said Collins. “Right now we’re looking at finding a way to close that gap the funding we have.”
Collins and Counce both emphasized how installing the artificial turf would not only hold up better against wear and tear, but if HCHS had artificial turf the school system could charge for events like music festivals or other sporting events to be held there. Collins said that the HC Quarterback Club looked at Dyersburg, who had installed artificial turf. It was noted that since Dyersburg installed artificial turf, the school has been able to rent the stadium for events to be held there and in turn it has generated over $1 million in revenue.
Collins said that the HC Quarterback Club was looking for feedback from the school board to see about taking the next steps into closing the gap in the funding for the artificial turf. He said that he wanted the school board to consider the advantages that the artificial turf could generate for the school.
Counce also told the board that something needs to be done with the field and both men said that there are a lot of drainage issues by the field that need to be addressed no matter whether the school board decides to replace the turf with natural turf or install artificial turf.
Collins said that the natural turf has 12-15 year shelf life depending on how well it’s maintained. He said that the school system budgets around $28,000 for turf maintenance, so over 12 years that would be around $336,000 that could be used towards the project. Counce said that if they did install the artificial turf, he would handle the maintenance of the field.
“Practice field takes a pretty good beating and we need to do something with the field. This is not a war on natural turf… turf gets wrecked a lot more than using artificial turf,” said Collins. “If we installed this, we have to use this not just for football but for other sports like softball, baseball, soccer, etc. The use of the artificial turf would have to be scheduled well and the concessions side could off-set some of the costs associated with installing the artificial turf.”
“We not here asking for money, we are taking about accruing the money that would be used for regular maintenance of the field (natural turf) and putting that money towards installing the artificial turf,” said Collins. “Teams would pay money to play on the artificial turf, because there isn’t the wear and tear on it like a natural turf field would have.”
Money that the Henry County Quarterback Club was raised based on installing artificial turf and will not be used to pay for the replacement of the field with natural turf. Collins said the $700,000 would paid by private donors through the Henry County Quarterback Club so there wouldn’t any taxpayer money being used for it.
Counce said that it would cost replacing the turf with natural turf again would cost between $100,000-$120,000 and those funds would have to be paid for with taxpayer money.
Both men said that the usability of the having a field that had artificial turf would allow the school to host more events, which would also bring in revenue.
“We need the big picture before we commit to either decision, whether we go with replacing what we already have with natural turf,” said Collins.
“We ask a lot of our taxpayers and this is something we can do to make our school better without asking more from our taxpayers,” said board member Josh Frey.
Frey suggested that they go to Dyersburg to see their artificial turf since, Dyersburg was the model that Henry County had been looking at. The school board said that they would be open to finding out more about the advantages of installing artificial turf vs. replacing the natural turf again.
Photo: Andy Collins (right) from the Henry County Quarterback Club addressed the Henry County Board of Education at Thursday’s meeting to see about closing the gap in funding for installing artificial turf at HCHS. (Cassie Walsh photo)