PB to use Covid funds for new turf field

By Kerry Butrick Dowling
Posted 12/7/22

Pine Bush High School athletic fields will soon receive an upgrade under the Coronavirus Relief Fund according to district officials. At the November 22, 2022, Board of Education Meeting, Assistant …

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PB to use Covid funds for new turf field

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Pine Bush High School athletic fields will soon receive an upgrade under the Coronavirus Relief Fund according to district officials. At the November 22, 2022, Board of Education Meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business Joseph Lenz shared that the upgrade has been in discussions since August by the Board and given the timeline of needing to utilize the funds both for ordering supplies and installation the project fit the bill. In total, about five million dollars is available under the Coronavirus Relief Fund and the turf field will make up about $4.25 million of that funding with the remaining funds to be utilized towards windows.

“The Covid Relief Funds, because of the timeline associated with those and having to do final cost reports, the original plan of replacing our aging HVAC systems throughout our various school buildings wasn’t going to be able to come to fruition because of the lead time associated with that type of equipment. Many of those pieces take over a year to come in at this point. So we had the discussion around artificial turf just because plans had already been discussed previously with the capital project and we could move around that much quicker. In fact, some of those plans are already submitted to SED for their consideration and review,” Lenz shared.

Lenz explained the main athletic field and the practice field will be changed to artificial turf this spring and summer. The change to the practice field will begin in the spring around April and run through sometime in the summer. It is anticipated that work on the main field will begin at the end of June after graduation and continue through possibly mid-September.

With the 2023-2024 school year on the horizon, district officials shared that fall sports practices and tryouts begin in late August and the practice field will be ready to go for the beginning of the fall season. The main field will be ready a few weeks into the season. Both fields will be lined for field hockey, football, lacrosse and soccer.