Schools

With school starting, turf fields are ready for play

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With the summer winding down, so is work on the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s three new artificial-turf athletic fields at Calhoun, Kennedy and Mepham high schools.

The fields passed their final “bounce test” and were certified playable on Sept. 9, according to Saul Lerner, the Central District's athletics director.

Laser Industries, which is based in Ridge, in Suffolk County, has been busily installing the fields in recent months. Now they are ready for play, said district’s facilities director, John Simpkins. A third-party inspection company conducted Tuesday’s review. In an interview that day, Simpkins said the district would likely have teams playing on the field's by week's end. Calhoun had a game on the its field on Thursday, Kennedy was expected to have a game on Friday and Mepham on Saturday, after press time.

Work on the Grand Avenue and Merrick Avenue middle school fields should begin later in the fall and pick up again in the spring. Simpkins said he did not yet know how that work might affect the middle schools’ playing schedules.

The fields cost $1.3 million each –– for a total of $6.5 million between the district’s five main athletic fields. Funds for the fields were included in a nearly $50 million bond referendum, which passed a public vote last December. The bond is costing local taxpayers $104 per year, or $8.67 per month.

Simpkins said there were cost overruns for the three high school fields, though he did not have precise amounts. He said there were 13 drywells beneath the Calhoun field and three underneath the Mepham field that had to be removed before the turf fields could be installed. Simpkins said the overruns were paid for with contingency funds that were built into the bond, adding that contingency funds for the fields were used up during the project.

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