Artificial turf part of many Toronto school improvements

NEW FIELD AHEAD — The Toronto Board of Education has approved a $1.2 million contract for the installation of artificial turf at the softball field at Michael Simpson Park, seen here, and the multipurpose field across from Toronto Junior-Senior High School. Work on the softball field is slated to begin after the city fall softball league’s season is completed. — Warren Scott

TORONTO — The Toronto Board of Education has approved a $1,278,557 contract for artificial turf at two playing fields, one of many school improvements pursued by it in recent months.

Maureen Taggart, superintendent of Toronto City Schools, said through a cooperative purchasing agreement, Field Turf of Calhoun, Ga., artificial turf will be installed at the softball field at Michael Simpson Park and the multipurpose field at the west end of the parking lot at Toronto Junior-Senior High School.

Earlier this year, Toronto City Council agreed to transfer ownership of the park to the school district so it could pursue the new field.

The park is off Edgar Avenue and downhill from the rear of the school.

Taggart said of the project, “Our objectives are to create a safer playing surface, reduce maintenance and increase playing time. A turf playing surface is durable, reliable and always game-ready, providing all of our athletes equal opportunities to play.”

She said work on the softball field is slated to begin after the fall season of the city’s softball league ends.

Board member Jay Foster noted the multipurpose field is used by the Toronto Titans football league as well as the school district’s physical education classes and the high school’s marching band.

He added while fencing will be added to the area, it will be available for public use.

Foster said drainage structures will be installed to address recurring runoff from an embankment along the field.

The project includes the addition of bleachers to both areas for spectators’ comfort.

Taggart said about $30,382 remaining from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded to the school district will pay for the bleachers as well as picnic tables near the softball field.

The board also has approved about $49,969 for scoreboards for the junior-senior high school gym and clocks for the locker rooms there.

Taggart noted $20,000 of the project will be covered by a grant from the Charles M. and Thelma M. Pugliese Foundation.

While work on the fields will proceed during the school year, crews were busy completing other projects on school grounds before it started.

When the marching band performs at the high school’s first home game Friday night against Lowellville, they will be able to rest on a new, permanent set of bleachers.

Earlier this year, the school board allocated $27,655 to the Southern Bleacher Co. of Graham, Texas, for the bleachers and their installation under a sheltered area by Clarke Hinkle Field.

Taggart noted the band had used a portable set of bleachers that were transferred from the football to the adjacent baseball field as needed. With the addition of the permanent bleachers to the football field, those stands will be kept by the baseball field, she said.

Before school buses arrived on the first day of school, the parking lot for the junior-senior and elementary schools was repaved by McCart Construction of Amelia, Ohio. The $35,900 project included a new sidewalk between the school district office at nearby Karaffa Recreation Center and the parking lot and handicap-accessible sidewalks to the school, a rear sidewalk from the junior high gym and concrete work at Red Knight Stadium and the baseball field.

Taggart said about $56,176 was invested in new LED lighting for the parking lot’s streetlights and lighting in the junior-senior high school gym and about $94,659 was used to purchase and install a video surveillance camera system for the football and baseball fields.