Good news Montgomery County! No budget crisis here! We have enough money to install two football fields at one high school in the same fiscal year!Did you happen to catch the WJLA Channel 7 news report by Greta Kreuz on the new artificial turf field for the newly modernized Walter Johnson High School? Did you happen to notice that Greta was standing in front of a brand new GRASS football field at Walter Johnson High School (WJHS) in her report?
What? WJHS just got a new grass football field and the County Council just funded a new ARTIFICIAL turf football field for WJHS too?
You bet! Montgomery County is flush with funding for football fields!
In order to be ready for the August 2009 football season the newly modernized Walter Johnson High School is getting a NEW GRASS field installed right now!
And then, as soon as football season is over, the BRAND NEW $432,500* GRASS field will be RIPPED UP and replaced with a $1,200,000 artificial turf field. That's right, the cost of a brand new sod field PLUS the cost of installing a brand new artificial turf field, and both projects in the same fiscal year! The Walter Johnson High School football field will have cost $1,632,500 in one year! And don't forget to add in the one year cost to water the grass field - $6,000!
*Source of cost data: February 15, 2008 County Council Education Committee packet, page 12 of PDF or page circle 9.
Isn't this typical of our so-called media of today? This clueless woman doesn't realize that she is standing in front of a real GRASS field while she babbles on about turf fields. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteNo, what I think is pathetic is that there were no concessions made to accomodate WJHS to play on an alternate football field so as not to waste the money on natural grass, and then tear it up to have artificial turf installed at an outrageous cost. Please, give me a break. $1.2 million, someone got snowballed.
ReplyDeleteRichard Montgomery lost their athletic fields to sink holes and other infrastructure issues prior to its renovation. RM worked out arrangements with Montgomery College and the City of Rockville for use of substitute fields while their school was under construction. Bus transportation to practices was provided by MCPS. That's the established precedent, and likely to become more frequent as schools undergo renovations while still occupying the original building.
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