Drought reaps a harvest in Georgia stadiums

[tbgfan 856]

Thought this would be of interest.

 

http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2008/06/03/schoolturf_0604.html

[trublue 939]

What is so strange.....Gwinnett County, (largest school system in state) does NOT have turf.

A blogger dad said North Gwinnett HS ((played for 5A state championship in 2007) approached the county about raising the money to put in field turf on their own (thru community and sponsors w/o any county dollars involved)....Gwinnett County said NO.

Go figure.

[VHSLhelper 571]

Looks like one of those power-trip things ... if turf goes in, everyone in the community will want to play on it, which would lead to things like higher insurance & lighting costs for the school system, and we can't have that now, can we ??

[trublue 939]

[ QUOTE ]

Looks like one of those power-trip things ... if turf goes in, everyone in the community will want to play on it, which would lead to things like higher insurance & lighting costs for the school system, and we can't have that now, can we ??

 

[/ QUOTE ]

 

I didn't quote all the blogger said....to finish it...he said the county stated "if one school gets it, ALL schools will get it and that is NOT going to happen."

There are currently 16 high schools in Gwinnett w/2 or 3 being built to reduce overcrowding.

I believe MANY of the TD clubs could raise the funds but possibly not ALL ....so, if ALL can't get it ....NONE will get it per the county according to the blogger.

I think with many of the high schools in surrounding counties getting it....the TD Clubs will keep harping for

the turf and not taking NO for a final answer.

Time will tell......

[dcecilgolf 11]

You can't really compare Forsyth and Gwinnett County.

Two completely different areas with completely different amounts of money available.

[trublue 939]

Forsyth has 4 high schools....Gwinnett has 16 w/ a couple of more being built....Gwinnett does not want to be responsible for maintaining/upkeep of that much turf even if the TD Clubs can afford to have it installed.

Forsyth has just started their rapid growth...give it a few years. I've lived here since 1987....I've seen changes in all the counties.

BTW, 11 of the Gwinnett High Schools were ranked earlier this year by Newsweek in the top 1300 in the nation.....

[VHSLhelper 571]

I just don't understand their thinking on that. The big thing about turf is that it REDUCES maintainence time & cost to nearly nothing. You just need to add some pellets every year and run the fluffer every so often. Shoot, they could rotate a fluffer between 4 schools and reduce the cost even more.

[trublue 939]

Makes sense.

Gwinnett's population is over 757,000...(larger than 4 states and DC) median household income little over $66,000. Forsyth's population is over 158,000 w/median household income of $83,000 (ranked by Forbes as 13th richest county in nation). Gwinnett used to be much smaller....in 1990 population was about 350,000. Forsyth's population in 1990 was about 44,000. Forsyth will be changing drastically in the years to come too. (BTW Gwinnett and Forsyth are neighbors.)

My thinking is they (Gwinnett) will eventually allow turf...but when....who knows. We're in an extreme drought situation here (level 4).....so, it would only make sense to allow the TD Clubs to raise the money to have it installed.