By Dominik Lobkowicz
Jefferson School Committee members (from left) Shawn St. Cyr, Forrest Bryant, Chair Bob Westrich, and Joan Jackson came before the Jefferson Board of Selectmen Aug. 25 to see what support the town could offer in fixing problems with the school’s new baseball field. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
Four members of the Jefferson School Committee attended the Jefferson Board of Selectmen’s meeting Aug. 25 to discuss options for fixing glass, metal, and other contamination of the Jefferson Village School’s new baseball field.
Selectmen Greg Johnston and Jigger Clark indicated they are behind the school committee’s efforts to get the field fixed and Johnston committed to making some telephone calls on the issue, but the overall path to a playable field is still not yet clear.
The school’s two sports fields were built in 2011 by George C. Hall & Sons, of Rockland, as part of construction of the new school, and both were later found to have contamination problems.
The softball infield has since been replaced, with part of the cost taken on by Hall, but the company and the school committee have yet to see eye to eye on how to get the baseball field into a condition the committee will sign off on.
An inspection of the baseball field last August found contamination in both the infield and outfield, and in soil samples tested by R.W. Gillespie & Associates last fall, only two of 11 samples taken met material-screening specifications.
Tyler Barter, a representative of Oak Point Associates, the architectural firm involved with the school project, told the school committee in May a representative sample of the material spread on the sports fields was independently tested prior to being spread and was in general conformance with the specifications.
School committee Chair Bob Westrich said the point of attending the selectmen’s meeting was to see if the town would support their efforts in getting the fields fixed, and if it will support the effort financially.
The school committee voted to litigate the issue in May, and on Aug. 4 rejected an offer from Hall to replace the infield in a fashion similar to the softball field, hand-pick and remove any stones larger than 1 inch visible on the outfield’s surface, and aerate and fertilize the turf once more, among other work.
Bill Reinhardt, Hall’s vice president of operations, said previously the company would not replace the outfield material.
Westrich described the offer from Hall as “cosmetic” work rather than a fix of the field’s underlying issues.
The reason the committee rejected the offer, Westrich said, was in the box he brought: a portion of the lighters, metal, and glass that has been found on the surface of both sections of the baseball field.
Estimates for the costs of arbitrating the dispute over the fields with Hall are $25,000 to $30,000, committee members said at the selectmen’s meeting.
The school will have to split the cost of the arbitrator with Hall, and pay for its own attorney, committee member Shawn St. Cyr said.
The second part of the field’s issues is the soil quality, St. Cyr said. There are large areas of the field which are just sand and silt and contain no organic matter, he said.
The architect of the school project is gathering information on the costs to have the top four inches of the field stripped and replaced with new topsoil, St. Cyr said.
Though it has been suggested an additional 4 inches of compacted topsoil be added to the field instead of taking the existing topsoil off, committee member Forrest Bryant said there would be issues with the grading of the field in respect to the infield and fence, and concerns the contaminants would work their way to the surface with the help of frost.
Johnston said it would be good to know what local bids would be for the work versus the legal costs of going after Hall to fix the field.
Westrich said estimates for replacing the topsoil are at least in the $50,000 range.
“No doubt it’s going to be over $30,000 for 1,000 yards” of topsoil, even without the costs of trucking, spreading, or seeding the soil, Westrich said.
Westrich said he has been in contact with the Department of Education regarding contingency funds for the school construction project which might be used to address the field’s issues.
AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey is researching the current balance of the funds, Westrich said.
According to Bryant, the DOE has indicated in earlier meetings it is not interested in putting up any of the contingency money to fix the baseball fields.
Only $7,000 remains in “retainage” owed to Hall that could be held over the company’s head to get the problems fixed, Westrich said.
“Most people that I talked to want us to get what we paid for, what the state paid for,” Westrich said.
“Moral support – we’ll back you 100 percent morally,” Selectman Chair Greg Johnston said to the committee. “You’re doing the right thing.”
Whether the town can offer any financial support would have to be approved by the voters, Johnston said, and he was not sure where the funds would come from.
Johnston also expressed a willingness to get involved in the effort to bring the issue to resolution.
“Maybe you need to make a phone call at this point and let them [the Department of Education] know it’s not going away,” Bryant said.
Johnston said he believes the state has some responsibility in getting the field fixed and should be looking into it.
“The state paid for it, where’s the state in all this helping us?” he asked.
Johnston said he would confer with Bailey regarding the field issue as well as make some calls.
