By David Porter

At its meeting Tuesday night, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee is expected to revisit and potentially rescind funding for a previously approved proposal to replace the Amherst Regional High School track and main playing field, both of which are considered in substandard condition. Following is a look at some of the key questions surrounding the project.

WHY IS THERE AN  EFFORT TO REPLACE THE TRACK AND MAIN PLAYING FIELD?

Both facilities are considered in poor condition due to age and overuse and in dire need of upgrade or replacement. The synthetic track is cracked and damaged to the point that the boys’ and girls’ track teams have been forced to host home meets elsewhere. Because the track features six lanes instead of eight, the school has been unable to host regional track meets.

The grass field, used by the school’s soccer teams, lacrosse teams, and Ultimate Frisbee teams as well as by community sports groups and ARHS phys ed classes, has poor drainage and often is unusable even after moderate rain. As far back as the mid-1970s, soccer teams have occasionally had to play home games at other schools due to flooding issues. 

The field also is small, and barely wide enough to meet recommended guidelines for soccer issued by the state’s high school athletics association. Its east-west orientation forces one team to battle direct sunlight in late-afternoon games in the fall.

The track and fields have limited seating capacity, and ADA accessibility from the parking areas is virtually nonexistent, a review by Reading-based Weston & Sampson, an environmental and infrastructure firm commissioned to review the athletic facilities, concluded.  

WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED ALTERNATIVES?

The proposal currently being considered would reorient the track and main playing field so that they face north-south, or roughly perpendicular to Mattoon Street instead of parallel (see image at right). The track would be widened from six to eight lanes, and the field’s grass surface would be replaced by artificial turf. The playing field size would accommodate multiple sports and the artificial turf would allow for greater field use overall, including as a back-up for the grass fields in the event that those fields are unusable due to weather or damage. There also would be improved bleacher seating and the area around the track and field would be upgraded with walkways and made ADA-accessible. 

The replacement of the track and field is part of the town’s comprehensive Community Field Master Plan completed in 2018 by Weston & Sampson with the town’s Amherst Center Recreation Working Group. The school committee considered other options based on alternatives presented in the Community Field Master Plan including 1) renovate the track and interior field but leave them in their current location, and; 2) reorient and widen the track and field to face north-south and install a new, natural turf field.

what ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT POTENTIAL HAZARDS IN USING ARTIFICIAL TURF?

Some school community and council members, as well as some residents who have commented during meetings, have noted concerns about synthetic chemical compounds found in some artificial turf surfaces. Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down over time. PFAS can be found in many, everyday items including food packaging (such as take-out pizza boxes), tampons, contact lenses, dental floss, and cell phone screens.

Some towns and cities in the U.S., including Boston, have restricted or banned the use of artificial turf fields over PFAS concerns, but many towns continue to build them as an alternative to grass fields. 

While many studies have confirmed the detrimental effects of PFAS in drinking water and groundwater, a direct connection between PFAS in artificial turf and groundwater contamination has been less certain. A study by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection released this year concluded “there is limited data available to make a conclusion about the release of PFAS from artificial turf during its period of active use.” In Amherst, while UMass installed 9 artificial turf fields in 2019 and Amherst College installed two artificial turf fields in 2021 (one new and one a replacement) in addition to the artificial turf field it had installed in 2013, the town has not reported any increase in detectable PFAS in its water.

The Amherst Hurricanes Athletic Boosters are advocating for the use of artificial turf products in the ARHS project that manufacturers say do not use PFAS.

Whether artificial turf leads to more injuries also is a question. A review of more than four dozen studies over the last 50 years published this year in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found a higher rate of foot and ankle injuries occurred on artificial turf. Knee and hip injuries were roughly the same, though elite-level football players were at higher risk of knee injuries. A six-year study of male collegiate soccer players published in the AJSM in 2017 found no differences in the incidence or severity of match-related injuries on both surfaces. 

HOW MUCH WOULD THE VARIOUS ALTERNATIVES COST?

Reorienting the track and installing a new, synthetic playing field is estimated to cost about $4.7 million, and reorienting them with a natural turf field would cost about $3.7 million, according to a financial presentation to the school committee in March 2022. 

Replacing the track in its current location without replacing the field would cost about $1.2 million. 

The alternatives also have different budget implications for maintenance as well as different impacts on potential usage and revenue-generation. Some of these were outlined in a memo to the Town Council from ARPS Athletic Director Victoria Dawson and former Superintendent Mike Morris, including the need for more staff and funding for the upkeep of high quality grass fields than typically has been appropriated.

HOW WOULD THE PROJECT BE PAID FOR?

It’s expected the $4.7 million project would be paid for by a combination of sources, including a $1.5 million debt authorization voted by the Regional School Committee and approved by the four towns in the district in spring 2022. As of January 2023, additional funding had been secured: $900,000 in free cash, previously appropriated funds that haven’t been spent; $957,500 from Amherst Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, $11,500 from Pelham CPA funds, and $809,000 in cash or in-kind donations raised by Amherst Hurricanes Athletic Boosters. 

According to Boosters President Mary Klaes, the organization’s fundraising was predicated on the project with artificial turf that was approved by the school committee last year, and the funds raised to date cannot be applied to a different project.

The Regional School Committee will discuss the project and consider rescinding the debt authorization for the project at its meeting on Tuesday, December 12.

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Update

At its December 12 meeting, the committee postponed a vote on the debt authorization but agreed to form a subcommittee to gather more information and solicit additional public opinion on the pros and cons of synthetic turf versus natural turf.

The vote culminated a meeting that highlighted the split on the committee between members who wanted to rescind the original debt authorization – or reword it to include both natural and synthetic turf options instead of just synthetic turf – and those who wanted to delay a vote until at least January, to gather more information and allow three new elected committee members to be seated to replace three interim members who have served since late September. 

Interim Superintendent Doug Slaughter noted that rewording the debt authorization without rescinding it could wind up forcing the committee to vote on a second debt authorization. 

Slaughter added that design work on the project currently is anticipated to take up most of 2024, with bidding for contracts to follow at the beginning of 2025. 

David Porter grew up in Amherst and spent many years as a sports and courts writer for the Associated Press. He returned to Amherst with his wife, son, and cat.