Alva Review-Courier -

Following a brief special city council meeting, the Alva Economic Development Authority (AEDA) met in special session Thursday. Trustees present were Garrett Lahr, Gail Swallow, Sadie Bier, Joe Parsons and Greg Bowman.

The special meeting was to consider the recommendation of the Alva Parks and Recreation Board to accept the low bid with alternates from Sprint Turf for a synthetic turf infield project at the Alva Recreation Complex. With all members present, the parks and recreation board voted unanimously to accept Sprint Turf’s low bid including the base bid, contingency fee, a Brockfill alternate, college softball logos and up-sized drainage. A story on that meeting appeared in the Friday, Sept. 29, Alva Review-Courier.

Parks and Recreation Director Courtney Nesseralla and Board Chairman Shane Hansen were available to answer questions.

Emailed Answers to Questions

Before the meeting, Mayor Kelly Parker sent out a no-reply email to AEDA members, Nesseralla, Ford and City Attorney Drew Cunningham. He listed questions he had received along with answers. Here’s a sampling of that list:

Q. How will it be paid for when it needs replaced?

A. Impossible to answer … it’ll be up to future appointed and elected officials to determine this. All anyone can do is speculate.

Q. How difficult and costly is it to go back to grass and dirt if we don’t have the money when the turf goes bad?

A. Remove the base layer and the turf. Put down sod (softball is more of a clay). Reattach irrigation system. Any cost estimate for 10 plus years down the road would be completely speculative.

Q. Could the part the city is paying be used on the pool if we don’t do the turf?

A. Short answer is yes with a favorable approval of a budget amendment. (This question is a matter of priorities. Both can be done within the constraints of current budget and future available finances.)

Q. What economic benefits does turf have?

A. The turf doesn’t need watered; we don’t have to rake, stripe lines, etc. in preparation for games; infield mowing/trimming will be eliminated (this is the most technical aspect of field maintenance). All this means less labor and less labor is less expense.

For the local economy, the tournaments bring in hundreds and sometimes thousands of people to town – the turf means we never have to cancel tournaments due to rain (nor will we have to have crews work through the night to dry fields for playing the day after a moderate rain of one to two inches.).

It is very economical and has been implemented in many drought prone regions across the southwest.

Q. Does the college pay to use the softball field or help maintain that field? What agreement do we have with them?

A. There is a Memorandum of Understanding between NWOSU and Alva Recreation Complex for the use of the fields. They pay $25,000 for the use of soccer and softball nine months out of the year, and they pay for all of the materials, maintenance and upkeep on those fields during those nine months.

Discussion

Swallow who is on the Parks and Recreation Board said that Sprint Turf is offering an eight year warranty. The company has been in business for 25 years, and they are American owned.

Parsons wanted to know how long the AEDA has been saving the money in the two certificates of deposit that are part of the turf budget. Parker said that didn’t begin building up until 2021 when the Alva Recreation Complex was paid off.

In discussion about the longevity of the turf, Nesseralla said the company will provide extra batter boxes, which receive the most wear. She thinks synthetic turf will bring in more teams and tournaments and more money because teams know games won’t be canceled due to rain.

Bowman said he hears people talk about making Alva a destination. Both this turf project and the pool project are important for that.

Parsons asked Nesseralla for an estimate of how many more teams might come to Alva, and she guessed it might increase by 15.

Bier made a motion, seconded by Swallow, to approve the low bid. Mayor Parker pointed out they did not say Sprint Turf of mention dollar amounts so it wasn’t the correct wording. Attorney Cunningham said they should go ahead and vote since there was a motion on the floor. Everyone voted no.

Then Bier reworded her motion properly, with Swallow providing a second. This time the motion passed 4-1 with Parsons voting against it. He explained his negative vote, saying a number of people have concerns and he was voting to represent them. Bowman whose yes vote followed Parsons said they are there to represent all the people.

The recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Board that was approved by the AEDA members includes the Sprint Turf base bid with the addition of the contingency, Brockfill, college softball logos and up-sized drainage. That total comes to $1,668,375.75. The project will be paid for using donations, money accumulated from two certificates of deposit, money from NWOSU and other funds in this year’s parks and recreation budget.

A video of the meeting may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.