May be able to put AT in? But the document reads as 'shall':
If the AT is bid low - accepted.
If the AT is bid high - accepted. Then MCPS has to find some organization to help pay for the greater than $1 Million price tag, as they did for WJHS , and Richard Montgomery HS, with the added bonus of the partner organization - not the school or the community - getting preferential use of the field.
What about the natural grass bid? Oh, that's right. Grass - standard or organic with proper base - doesn't get to bid.
And how does MCPS determine whether a bid is low or high? What are the bids really compared to? How would a tax payer know how money is spent if MCPS reps, BoE members, or Councilmembers don't know?
"So how much is it saving us, grass vs turf?" Councilmember Ervin asks (see video excerpt). Pregnant pause. "Not sure we have that number but we'll sure look at it." Superintendent Weast replies.
Not sure? Who knows? Who cares? Apparently MCPS, BoE and the Council don't really care about costs in this nightmare economy. You know, the economy MCPS and the Council say is going to be worse in 2012.
Watch the excerpt and you'll also hear Superintendent Weast say 'no brainer' and 'late comin' to the party...gonna see if we can stay in the party' with regard to artificial turf installation.
Answering the question, it appears AT installation has been a 'no brainer'.
Are actual costs known? Apparently not, as noted above. Superintendent Weast also says in the video clip that AT is "very cost effective" - fuzzy math since he doesn't know what the numbers are.
Are disposal costs for artificial turf with its toxic rubber pellets known? Duh, no brain strain there from the MCPS.
Are artificial turf replacement costs known? No. MCPS is not forward thinking, contrary to popular belief. Forward thinking requires thinking and planning ahead. Other schools have experienced replacement cost with FieldTurf already and the limited warranty should give pause to our representative.
It's good to know the head of the 'world class' education system considers investing millions in artificial turf as something that does not require any stress on the brain.
Also good to know in wonderful MoCo that artificial turf is a matter of appearance; that keeping up with other school systems by 'stay(ing) in the party', as Superintendant Weast says, is most important.
Apparently taking on debt with capital improvements is a 'no brainer'; cutting teachers to save the operating budget must be as well.
This is hysterical. Superintendent Weast knows the cost of a grass football field but he doesn't want to tell the Council!
ReplyDeleteIf he had to tell them that a new grass field WITH an underground sprinkler system can be put in for under $120,000 he would have to explain why MCPS gave fake cost numbers to the County Council on February 15, 2008!
$1.2 million for an artificial turf field would pay for TEN brand new grass fields.
Artificial turf is 10 times more expensive than grass, even a top of the line grass field. But MCPS refuses to put in top of the line grass fields and refuses to make the REAL cost of grass field known. (Where are those bids???)
What's a little fib among buddies...
Don't forget that artificial turf fields need security fences, locks to keep out the public and $5,000 IQEYE 24 hour security cameras to watch the artificial turf at all times!
ReplyDeleteThe public is NOT allowed to enter an artificial turf field at any time! This public space becomes off limits!!!
Election Notice. The entire Montgomery County Council is up for election this year. In the fall you will have the opportunity to thank the Council for exerting absolutely NO oversight over the installation of artificial turf football fields and making sure that taxpayers paid the HIGHEST price for these fields, way beyond what other municipalities are paying.
ReplyDeleteNo bids on these projects meant top dollar cost for taxpayers.
At first I thought it was just technology purchases that neither the Board of Education nor the County Council ED committee wanted to question.
ReplyDeleteNow we see, of course, that no one on the BOE or Council ED committee wants to question MCPS having the latest, greatest, "top of the line" anything! Custom IEP software (when you could get a similar product for free from MSDE). Funded. Promethean Boards (when you could just use a laptop and projector). Funded. And lots of them. Artificial Turf Fields (no more of that messy, dirty grass): Funded. And more on the way.
In special education, the rule is that you're not entitled to a "Cadillac" education, but only a Chevrolet instead. Sure seems like when spending in other areas, MCPS treats itself to the Rolls Royce, and then complains when they don't have enough money to get the mink-trimmed leather seats!
The attitude is appalling. If they go for artificial turf they cannot even think about a much cheaper, healthier, high-permforming and durable state of the art natural turf field EVER on that site and are condemning taxpayers to keep feeding these rock-plastic-tire money pits. Why? because they excavate tons of soil (up to three feet deep) and truck in tons of rock (for an up to 3 foot deep base) then place the thin plastic tufted tarp on top with 2 inches of tire crumbs laid down as the last step. Once the soil is carted away there is no going back- NOTHING will EVER grow on that site again unless the tons of rocks are taken away (and tons of soil returned).
ReplyDeleteEven worse - the 1-1.2 million dollar initial cost is only the tip of the plastic iceberg. Every 5-10 years the plastic tarp and tire crumb need to be disposed of to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars (based on the experience of other municipalities- we cannot get a straight answer on disposal costs or procedure from MCPS or FieldTurf). THEN a new plastic rug with tons of toxic tire crumb trucked in again needs to be put down at half a million to a million dollars (again based on the experience of others with degraded FieldTurf rugs). See www.synturf.org for a collection of experiences from other municipalities. How is this a good deal for the taxpayer, students and schools? It's NOT.
Think about it- around 2 million dollars over 10 years (considering only the first replacement) JUST for the rug and an additional $100,000 -$200,000 so for maintenance over 10 years. A state of the art Bermuda grass field with stormwater capture for irrigation and great drainage would cost a fraction to install. Even if the maintenance was $10,000 more per year than plastic (which is debatable- natural costs less if it is done smartly), a state of the art natural field would be less than half the cost over 10 years and even comparatively cheaper as continual artificial turf rug replacements must be done. As has been shown elsewhere, done right natural turf fields can be heavily used.
Studies have shown that players experience more and more severe injuries when they play on AT surfaces. This is an important factor that seems to be absent from calculations.
ReplyDeleteWhen the BoE and county council come to their senses (the kickback scandal is discovered?) couldn't we just bury the AT with fill dirt and plant grass over it?
ReplyDeleteA shallow grave for a massive boondoggle.
Weast: It's a party!
ReplyDelete2013 - RM partner gone
MCPS is robbing Field Trip money from kids to pay for replacement of artificial turf.
What a party!
Pat O'Neill says artificial turf fields can be plowed after snow.
ReplyDeleteThat's what FieldTurf thought happened to the 19 tons of crumb rubber at RM. Looks like they may have been right! MCPS plowed away the crumb rubber and ruined the field.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/03/artificial-turf-field-at-richard.html
According to Marc Elrich, those weren't 19 tons. According to him, you don't know what 19 tons looks like.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to add into your calculations the amount of money Gov. O'Malley is receiving from FieldTurfTarkett in campaign contributions.
ReplyDeleteIt was Keith Levchenko who told us, via email, that the replacement infill for the Richard Montgomery field amounted to 19 tons. Keith Levchenko works for the county council.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there were so many bags of infill it was impossible to take a picture of the whole parking lot full of infill bags with my little cel phone camera. Next time I will know better.