Conversations about the installation of an artificial turf field have started up again after the Guilford High School Building Committee (GHSBC) recently released a Request for Proposal (RFP), inviting companies to submit proposals for the project. While the committee continues to move forward with installing the field this summer, many residents are still concerned about the cost and health implications of an artificial turf field.

GHSBC voted to approve the new field in December 2015. Funding for the $950,000 field has technically already been approved, and will come from money left over from building the new Guilford High School (GHS).

GHSBC Communications Chair Mary Beeman said the RFP asks for proposals on three different infills for the artificial turf field including crumb rubber (shredded or pulverized recycled tire rubber), coated crumb rubber (recycled tires shredded and coated with acrylic), and polymer-coated silica sand, known by the brand name Envirofill.

“We are also asking for vendors to bid on a natural turf installation, which may be from contractors who do not offer artificial turf,” she said.

The bid opening will take place Tuesday, June 7 according to Beeman who said they will make a decision shortly after to keep the process moving along.

“The GHSBC has a special meeting that night to review the bids and discuss the various materials,” she said. “The GHSBC may make a recommendation to the Board of Selectman [BOS] on a vendor either that night or the following week, June 14.”

After the GHSBC makes an official recommendation, the BOS will then vote on the contract, which, if approved, would be executed shortly after the vote.

“The installation of an artificial turf field takes approximately three months,” said Beeman. “Start time will hopefully be the week of July 5 and end about the first week of October with the hopes of the field being done a little earlier in September so that it will get some play time this fall.”

While the RFP lists a variety of infills, residents have still expressed concerns about the harmful effects of artificial turf and the overall cost of the project. Guilford Residents Concerned About Turf (GRCAT) member Margot White said she does not believe any of the proposed infills are a safer alternative to natural grass.

“While most of my concerns were originally driven by the hazards of crumb rubber fill, the safest alternative is natural grass,” she said. “So-called ‘encapsulated crumb rubber’ does not offer any additional safety benefit, but the terminology is used to ease the concerns of the public as stated by the representative that presented all the options.”

White said she would prefer to see a natural grass field installed.

“There are ways to engineer a natural grass field so that it offers just as much play-time as turf,” she said. “These options have been brought to the GHSBC, and it is incomprehensible that these are not being explored more deeply. There are plenty of other towns that are using natural grass fields and they are working. In a town that has just built a state of the art high school, we need a forward-thinking, cost-effective playing field that is safe for the kids and the environment.”

GRACT member Paul Lenois said he is also concerned about the initial and long term costs of an artificial turf fields.

“A modern, properly maintained natural sod field has almost double the field time of older traditional grass fields and can be made rain proof,” he said. “Our town cannot afford a second synthetic turf field nor the replacement of two synthetic fields every eight- to nine years.”

Meeting times and agendas for the GHSBC can be found on the town website ww.ci.guilford.ct.us.