Boosters Seek Artificial Turf For Har-Ber Practice Field
Club Asks School District To Contribute $250,000 To Project
Last updated Sunday, November 18, 2007 3:39 PM CST in News
By Rose Ann Pearce
THE MORNING NEWS
SPRINGDALE -- The Har-Ber High School booster club wants to replace the grass-covered football practice field at the school with artificial turf.
The project could be the beginning of a long-term project to get a stadium and other athletic facilities at the three-year-old high school.
The Springdale School Board is considering a $250,000 contribution after booster club officials met with the board a week ago.
The Har-Ber High School Wildcats are in the state football playoffs this year in spite of sharing a stadium for games, practicing on a pock-marked grass field and using a dressing room with only two showers.
Tim Pruitt, booster club president, told school board members, "We are constantly asked, 'What's the plan?'"
Several players have experienced knee and ankle injuries in noncontact situations because of the condition of the practice field.
On days when Har-Ber can practice at Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium at Springdale High School, practice begins at 6 a.m., causing a hardship for Har-Ber players.
The booster club wants the district's permission to launch a campaign to raise $250,000, about half the estimated cost of the turf field. The group has asked the district to contribute the other half.
Superintendent Jim Rollins said the district can't contribute to the project from its general operating fund but does have the money in a special account from its soft-drink contract.
The district is in its final year of a 10-year contract with the Coca Cola Co. to supply soft drinks in vending machines in the secondary schools. There is about $330,000 in that account, said Allen Williams, assistant superintendent for business affairs.
Rollins said past allocations from the soft-drink proceeds have gone to athletic improvements at Springdale High School and Southwest Junior High School, indicating such a distribution to Har-Ber would be appropriate.
The school board would have to endorse the fundraising project and the contribution, which is expected in the next few weeks.
Pruit was joined by booster club vice president Mike Taylor in a presentation calling the 120-yard turf field the first phase of a three-phase project to add athletic facilities at the high school.
The second phase is an estimated $2 million indoor practice facility and the third phase is a stadium.
The master plan for the school's campus places a proposed stadium south of the fieldhouse at the back of the campus.
The artificial-turf field will also be available for other sports and the band.
The booster club hopes to have the field ready by April 1.
Pruitt said the booster club is waiting on the school board's endorsement of the project, then will gear up its fundraising effort.
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RootHog1 wrote on Nov 18, 2007 9:13 PM: