Five Town Community School District turf field community survey – Knox County VillageSoup

ROCKPORT — The Five Town CSD School Board’s Ad Hoc Turf Field/Facilities Committee has put together an online survey to solicit input from the community about the prospect of building a synthetic turf athletic field on the Camden Hills Regional High School property.

The survey can be found at the Camden Hills Football Facebook page.

In 2021, the Five Town CSD School Board formed an Ad Hoc Facilities Committee to explore the feasibility of constructing a turf field at Camden Hills Regional High School to replace the Don Palmer grass field.

The committee’s work over the past year has focused on five areas:

• Explore cost of construction/mechanisms to finance the possible project
• Explore community support/objections for the project
• Explore safety issues/health risks of playing on turf
• Explore possible outside users/fee generation
• Explore benefits of foul weather use/reduction in ground care

Proponents argue CHRHS is one of the few remaining conference schools without a turf field facility, adding that while it is great to see so many team sports available at CHRHS, the existing fields face more pressure from student use than any other time in facility history.

Late fall and early spring weather have required cancelling or relocating numerous home games, including playoff contests, due to unplayable field conditions. Meeting the overall student sport schedules on the existing grass fields will be an ongoing challenge.

The committee has completed a survey for equitable use of a shared turf facility among teams, has been in contact with many of the conference schools that have already completed transitioning to a turf field, and has held lengthy conversations and informational sessions with leading turf field providers, including receiving preliminary cost estimates.

 

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