Call In the Next Ten Minutes, We Will Dome the Football Field!

As we know, summer tends to be (even more) boring for school politics. Nothing really happens, the budget was passed last month, and now we just wait for the General Election in November for something that may come out as scandalous. (Well, the Board isn't immune to scandal, but that's a different post for a different time.)

The Turf Field Project--or if you prefer, the "MHS Athletic Field Improvement Project"--ever since The Mighty Quinn shown himself the door, the project twisted in limbo, and honestly, I was hoping we'd all just forget about this and move on with the Lights and call it a summer.

But alas, the July 16th meeting, which was a work session but every other business item was tabled, was the presentation plan for the history of this project. If you weren't able to attend, please click here and make sure you have a program that can read a PDF file (like Adobe Reader or such), because it's a slideshow saved as a PDF File.

First off, if you couldn't attend, don't feel bad--four out of the nine members couldn't be bothered to show up either (Jim Phillips--who is running for re-election, Maria Shackleford, Mark O'Neal, and Kim Woodring). You can take this any way you want, but it's pretty pathetic that there was almost not enough members to have a quorum on Tuesday, and that board members--elected officials, paid or not--couldn't bother to show up. Maybe a little explanation is in order at this meeting coming up.

The History of the Turf Project

The turf project idea seemed to form around 2008, which to those savvy enough, realise is when Skyview was being grafted onto the side of Arcola. The contractor building Arcola's tumor addition, EI Associates, gave out an Athletic Field Feasibility Study for a turf field. I don't recall ever hearing about this, but it seems like it would have happened. Hell, lets drop about $60 Million on a school, what's a few more million for some fake grass to watch kids kill themselves on playing Native American Arial Hockey and American Armored Rugby?

Well, yeah, any school with the coin and a few sports programs is "feasible" enough for a turf field. But that seemed to be the end of it, until 2011 came around, with The Mighty Quinn leading the helm of Superintendent of Schools for Methacton, and you know what is a major part of a Superintendent's job is? If you said, "making sure that we have a top-of-the-line turf field", then you're right...somehow. A company by the name of Hayes Large provided a very preliminary concept drawing for synthetic turf football field and soccer field on the other side of the campus (page 3 on the slideshow, if you're following with the powerpoint). Aside from costing a cool $3.5 Million, the initial concept was rejected, based on the soccer field being way way way too close to the border of MHS.

Come October 25, 2011, the Board unanimously approved Methacton to venture into untested waters on the turf field (which is literally the only thing under "Project History" if you clicked on the Methacton websites link for the turf project presentation). Along with that is the stadium lights residents have been fighting over for about one hundred years. It's up to you if you want to say they lumped the turf field project with lights or vice-versa, but seeing how Worcester kicked hard about putting in lights, I highly doubt the "feasibility" of MSD asking for both at the same time, but that's just me.

Even though the Board tabled adding new money for this project, they sent out an RFP for an architecture company in November of 2011, appointing Architerra to this spot, to which Methacton still has on board, and had an Architerra rep sitting at the Board during this presentation to answer questions.

Come the next year, 2012, the Board appoints Eric Frey of Dischell Bartle & Dooley as the Project Attorney. As a real estate lawyer, Mr. Frey is good at his job (some of you may recognize him as your local Republican Committeeperson, and some others my recognize him from the Lower Providence Zoning Board), so they put in, it seems, the right guy for this job. On that February, the paperwork to get the ordinance changed for Worcesters "no lights above 12 feet" policy changed. Not to ruin the ending for all of you, but I already posted the link on how they changed it, so there's that.

Come the last day of that month were the first real concepts for the turf fields

Core Concepts A-C2

If I were pick the point where the discussion went from "just lights on the football field" to "lets add two artificial turf fields", it would be with these seven concepts. Methacton was no longer content with just illumination, but completely overhauling our athletic fields. This is, and will be, the point of no return for this project.

(At this point in this post, if you've been ignoring me on reading the presentation, you're going to miss out. I can't save anything in the PDF as a picture file, and the Core Concepts are all in there. Please either view it in your browser, or save it and open it along side with this post. Sorry about the inconvenience.)

Concepts A and A1 are equivalent of the Hayes Large drawing--the soccer field stays where it's at, and both the football field and soccer field get turf. Both concepts add parking--Concept A add parking at the tennis courts and some at the football field, while A1 adds it all towards the bus depot. The problem with these two concepts would be how the turf is considered in the eyes of Worcester as permeable (able to absorb water) or impermeable (causing run-off during rain storms)--with it being considered at the latter, adding parking is an impossibility to keep with Worcesters' ordinance of permeable/impermeable surface ratio. While Concept A cost the same as Hayes Large ($3.5 Million), the Concept A1 was estimated to be $4.3 Million.

Concepts B and B1 is where the soccer field would be on the field behind the football field, keeping the evil fake grass all on one side of the campus. Instead of just a soccer/lacrosse/field hockey field, they'll add two softball fields, making a sort of frankenfield for the multipurpose field. Concepts B and B1 were both considered "too close to the road" for lights, ignoring that B1 has both sets of parking that Concepts A and A1 had, bringing up the impermeable part. While Concept B was estimated at $3.59 Million, the parking, and the additional natural grass softball field due west of the Bus Depot, in Concept B1 made it over the $5 Million mark I use when I usually talk about this project.

Concepts C, C1, and C2 weren't too much different from B and B1. I was a fan of C, solely on the fact that the football field would be natural grass instead of the fake evil grass, and I love football played on natural grass. However, the frankenfield would remain, this time as one field for baseball, one for softball, and a natural grass soccer field, apparently, due west of the Bus Depot. Concept C1 is where the football field is given fake evil grass, and they add the parking from Concept B1 (if it hasn't worked in the past four concepts, why did they think it would work here?), while C2 eschews the grass soccer field for...I don't know, five grass dots to make a second softball field? Regardless, Concept C would be around $3.5 Million thanks to the grass, while C1 and C2, thanks to the parking, made both around $5 Million.

At this point, these seven concepts were the working concepts for Methacton's turf project plan, but were rendered unworkable for one reason or another by Architerra and Methacton.

Concepts D-G

This is the part that starts to get hairy.

These four concepts were developed in March to April of 2012, and I may be the only one, but I have never seen these concepts, or any after this, be presented at any work session or regular meeting. Apparently, I'm not the only one, but I will get to that later.

Core Concept D was intriguing, in that they wanted to stuff a full-size soccer field where the baseball field currently sits at the corner of Germantown and Kreibel Mill Roads. The same baseball field that Mr. Mascaro of JP Mascaro & Sons wants to spend to renovate himself. It was found that the soccer/baseball frankenfield wouldn't work, along with the parking used in all of the unworkable concepts above.

Core Concept E is where the field due west of the Bus Depot would be the soccer/softball frankenfield done before--without lights, which is a concept that was kept later on. However, the basis of Concept E would be used for Concept K, so keep that in mind. It has the same parking set up as Concept D.

Core Concept F and F1 kept the unlit synthetic turf field west of the Bus Depot, but added necessary stormwater management fields (I think F stands for "Finally, we added this in"). The frankenfield would be a baseball/softball/soccer field; Concept F adds a grass soccer field, while F1 adds a grass softball field.

As such, Concept D has no estimate--it was deemed unworkable before they brought in the calculator. Concept E is estimated at around $4 Million, Concept F at about $3.6 Million, and F1 at over $5 Million.

Mystery Concepts H, I, and J, and the Mystery of Concept K

When dealing with a concept, there are many that are kept internally. Ask Ford Motor Company, and you'll probably find about six filing cabinets hidden in the design team's building of concept cars that were never brought to life. With Architerra, Core Concepts H, I and J were created, but determined internally that these weren't feasible for Methacton. Which is fine; I'm sure it would have been some variation of a concept shown above.

As such, that is why the official Concepts jump from F1 to K without blinking, but here is where it gets even hairier.

It says on page 22 of the slideshow, it says that Concept K was presented to the Board during a work session, but if you watch the tape at about fifty minutes in, Joyce admits that she has never seen Core Concept K until now almost a year later.

If you listen for a little bit longer until the Architerra representative speaks (about fifty seconds), the design was approved at a June 1st meeting that had "school district designated members" attending--with minutes taken. But, if you look at your calendars, June 1st isn't a regular meeting time for the School Board. In fact, there wasn't any type of meeting held by the board at that time. If I were to take a guess, The Mighty Quinn took charge and approved Concept K without board approval.

This isn't the first time Quinn has done this. When Methacton went and tried to put up an unnecessarily large, LED sign at Arcola, right at the bend of Eagleville Road, and MSD was shot down, Quinn reportedly entered a lawsuit with the Lower Providence Zoning Board without board approval. At that zoning hearing (I attended with my parents because we are close enough to Arcola to be impacted), no board members were present: it was Quinn, Angela Linch (the communications director) and Bill Jacobe, the Facilities Engineer.

This should have set off warning signals at the board. Joyce Petrauskas should have been furious--I would have--as the Board President kept in the dark by the Superintendent on a multi-million dollar project. Personally, I would have killed the project right there and started over--this Concept K, regardless of how good it is or isn't, has Quinn's fingerprints all over it like a stainless-steel refrigerator. For a Board and Administration that refused to mention his name during the slideshow (they just called him Superintendent if you noticed), they can't just pretend that he wasn't our Superintendent for four years and in effect embarrassed this school district one way or another.

Apparently, that doesn't matter too much, because the Board is working with Concept K. On Page 27 is the most detailed version of the preliminary design that uses Concept K. The football field is synthetic turf, and the field due west of the Bus Depot is a soccer/lacrosse/field hockey multipurpose field, both are allegedly lit. Two natural grass softball fields are placed next to the multipurpose field, and a stormwater management site is installed on the other side of the Bus Depot.

This project is slated to cost about $4.5 Million dollars.

How To Be A Good Neighbor, By Timothy Quinn and John Harris

One of the major stepping stones for this project is putting lights at the stadium. That was the original dream of most residents when you said "can we get lights?" instead of the current plan of two lit fields. If we can't get lights, what would be the point of putting down fake grass and putting in bathrooms and such?

So, in March and April of 2012, the Board (read: Quinn) held "Good Neighbor" meetings, which is a joke in itself, because Methacton's idea of being a good neighbor is eminent domain of three widows properties to get land for Arcola and put in a traffic light that isn't needed, to hell with the elderly couple that live at the corner and will be affected by the light 24/7. So, if I were to bet on Methacton taking a sharp turn and actually being a good neighbor, I would get better payout betting on myself getting struck by lightning thrice in one day.

From these "Good Neighbor" meetings stems a document formed jointly by The Might Quinn and a resident by the name of John Harris, who is apparently representing residents concerned with Methacton's field lighting. The so-named Quinn/Harris Document was presented to the Board on October of 2012, and met with an almost collective WTF from members in attendance.

To call the document restrictive is equivalent of calling the Zimmerman Trial controversial. It limited Methacton High School on everything to how tall the lights can be, to what kind of music can and cannot be played (read: if it isn't the Star Spangled Banner, don't expect much), to a strictly enforced curfew. Even with the revisions the Board made, some members do feel like this document is unnecessarily restrictive, and I agree with them. But I also take it as karma for how Methacton treated residents during the Eagleville/Arcola Road intersection battle, so there.

Where Do We Go From Here?

There are several reasons why this project is a bad idea. Page 89 of the budget gives me a good reason: Methacton is paying about $10 Million per year in debt service. That's from all of the bonds MSD took out to build Skyview, Woodland, and I'm pretty sure we're still paying off the bond we took out to rebuild Eagleville. Because of this, and the fact Methacton is only keeping $300,000 in reserve (after spending $500,000 to balance the budget), the possibility of Methacton's credit rating getting a downgrade isn't a matter of if but when. If you keep borrowing money and before you pay it back, you borrow some more, they're going to stop giving you money to borrow.

I like to equate this project to a family maxing out ten credit cards, but takes a second mortgage on their house to buy a new car. I only know a handful of people stupid enough to pull that stunt, but thankfully they don't offer mortgages on trailer homes. With the amount of Board members that tout that they have a "financial background", I'm utterly stunned that this project even reached this stage. It's obvious to me that maybe having a "financial background" doesn't equate to "I know how to manage money".

I can't stress enough how screwed Methacton will be in the next couple of years. I hate to say it, but looking at this years budget, and seeing the juggling Mr. Whiteleather and Dr. Miller had to do (I have to say, it was kind of fun to watch), I'm seeing a real possibility of an elementary school closing down in Methacton. Arcola is a little over half capacity for students, MHS hasn't met Adequate Yearly Progress for the PSSA's in six years, the budget outlook looks as pleasant as a baby deer dead on the side of the road, and spending almost Five Million Dollars on a turf field is a good idea?

Alright, lets talk about the field itself. You take out the bond, or loan, or you sell lemonade at 300% it's normal cost--whatever; let's just say we dropped the money for this field. Turf has an estimated lifespan of eight years, and the number one deterrorant of an artificial turf field is UV rays. Hello? Methacton's sports fields sit out in the freakin' open! When a resident brought up that concern at Tuesday's meeting, the Architerra representative confirmed and, and agreed! So, we take out a bond for this field, and before we can pay half of it off, we have to take out another loan to replace the fake grass.

What about if the storm water management system has an unexpected problem? What happens in four years, the turf is suffering from accelerated deterioration and a student tears their ACL while tripping over the deteriorating seam? What happens if chemicals produced from the turf deteriorating leaches into the residents groundwater, God forbid, and someone sensitive to chemicals gets sick and it's traced back to MSD? This isn't buying a car in a video game--you don't drop the coin and don't ever worry about it ever. There are upkeep costs, problems, necessary repairs--it is exactly like a car.

If the Board gets it's apparent way, it won't just be $4.5 million spent. It won't get put in and then forgotten in the minds of everyone around MSD. This will impact us--the residents of Lower Providence and Worcester--for years to come. This shouldn't be a quick and easy consideration.

The Board should kill the turf project--just go with lights. But if they decide that it's a good idea to go with it, and the public does support them as they try to lead us to believe, then they will put their money where their mouth is and put it up for referendum. If the public wants it, the public will have it.

Until then, it's the same ol' same ol'.

EDIT: Well, I know why one of the missing four board members were absent. Jim Phillips was absent due to an illness. As for the other three, it is still unknown.