Following the Guilford High School Building Committee (GHSBC)’s decision to move forward with a coasted sand artificial turf field, the contract was placed before the Board of Selectman (BOS) at its July 5 meeting. The BOS voted unanimously to approve the contract, opening the doors for construction to begin soon.

The GHSBC voted on June 28 to move forward and submit a recommendation to the BOS to contract with RAD Sports to construct a coated sand synthetic turf field for $1,151,100. GHSBC member Bill Mulligan presented the recommendation to the BOS and explained what the contract includes.

“Grass was voted down, which then led to coated sand infill, which was approved by the committee,” he said. Some additional alternatives were included as well, including a four-foot chain link fence and gate, two football uprights, and a 20-foot ball net safety system, he said.

As for the price of the field, Mulligan said sand was the most expensive option, but they felt it was the best option.

“Sand was the most expensive option,” he said, “but from my perspective it was significantly less than I expected it to be and when you take in all of the potential health concerns that could come into play, I believe the committee thought this was the best use of the town’s money.”

Mulligan said the committee reviewed many cost studies of a 20-year field life cycle before making a decision.

“The cost per use with grass came in at $116 for grass compared to $49 for the sand, so it was a dramatic difference there,” he said.

Mulligan said the committee felt RAD Sports was the best option for the project for many reasons.

“RAD has built over 2,000 synthetic turf fields and I think that weighed on people’s minds,” he said. “We recognize that a million dollars is a million dollars and we want to make sure we have the best bid possible for that price.”

The BOS is required to approve all contracts put forward by the GHSBC, but did not have any say in the committee’s choice of material for the project. However, once the field is completed, it will no longer be under the GHSBC’s jurisdiction. After that, it will be up to the town and the Board of Education (BOE) to determine who will be financially responsible for replacing the field carpet as needed.

Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman said there needs to be conversations about how those cost will be divided down the road.

“It is the BOE position that those discussions will continue,” he said. “There was a suggestion that it is going to be a 50/50 [town/schools] split. There is other evidence that earlier in the relationship that the town was expecting to pull in more of that, so we are going to continue the discussion.”

For now, construction of the field is expected to take place this summer.