Fields to open in 2010?

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: September 5, 2008

It’s been almost six months since the Hoover Ridge athletic fields project was completed and yet the fields are barely green.

Madison County officials are currently working to create “a plan of attack” to promote grass growth on the 11 new fields set on the county-owned property near Madison Primary School.

The unsuccessful growth is mostly due to the hardness of the land, according to Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman Eddie Dean. Officials were aware of the soil’s stiffness when they were first planning the fields’ development although they “were probably a little too optimistic” about it, Dean told The Eagle.

A lack of rain during a large portion of the summer has further delayed growth, according to Dean.

“Grass growth is a lot like farming…it’s really a hit or miss situation,” he said.

A group of county representatives – including Dean, County Administrator Lisa Kelley, Madison Extension Agent Brad Jarvis and representatives from the Madison County Facilities and Maintenance Department – are discussing different actions to help bring the fields into playable condition, Dean told the supervisors at their regularly scheduled Aug. 28 workshop meeting.

County facilities employees will spend both working hours and volunteer hours alongside other community volunteers, including Supervisor Bill Crigler and Jarvis, to improve the property. The group plans to use farm equipment lent to the county by residents to alleviate some of the compaction of the fields, Dean told the board. 

“We’re trying to do this as economical as possible,” he said, adding that this work should take place in the next two to three weeks. Volunteers will also address some erosion problems on the property, according to Dean.

Working to ensure the athletic fields are in good condition will be an ongoing process, the county administrator told the board at the August workshop meeting.

“We never would have contemplated that the first time we sowed the grass, even if we did it exactly right, that we would have had the stand that we want to have ultimately,” Kelley said. County representatives will have to continuously aerate the soil and overseed the property for “quite awhile,” she said.

The county is currently limiting vehicular traffic on the property while they work to grow the grass, Dean said. Access to the walking trails on the land is also limited, although officials plan to look into improving entry to the trails once initial work to support grass growth is complete, he said. 
The supervisors chairman estimates that some of the new athletic fields will be available for use as early as the spring or fall of next year.
“It’s certainly likely that all of the fields will be ready no later than spring 2010,” Dean told The Eagle.

County officials also plan to rotate the use of each of the five baseball and softball fields and the four multi-purpose fields to maintain their condition, the supervisors chairman said.

The board of supervisors initially contracted Chantilly-based William A. Hazel Inc. in late 2007 to construct the fields for $772,000. The board later approved a total of about $77,000 in additional funds toward the project due to some “unexpected contingencies,” including hitting some rock in the ground during construction and installing additional corrugated pipes and culverts due to some of the original topography, which was taken from aerials, being a little bit off, officials said earlier this year.

The county’s 2008-2009 fiscal year budget includes $70,000 set aside for continued improvements of the Hoover Ridge athletic fields — $30,000 less than originally proposed to be included in the current budget. 

The creation of the athletic fields is part of a larger plan to upgrade Hoover Ridge, formerly known as the Clore property. In 2002, the county purchased the property for $800,000, according to an Eagle story from the time.

The supervisors cited a need for multi-purpose recreational fields in the county as one the reasons for the purchase, the story states. A committee was later established to come up with additional plans of how to use the county-owned site. Future plans include lighting the fields, creating a community recreation center, an amphitheater and a 10-foot-wide unpaved walking and cycling path.