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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports HALTON TRANSMISSION "Connected to your Community" 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com 39 | Thursday, May 15, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com A sod state of affairs Large pools of water cover parts of the athletic field at Garth Webb Secondary School following a recent heavy rainfall. The field's chronically-soggy conditions are forcing the two-year-old school to play all of its outdoor sports games off campus. | photo submitted Garth Webb community says grass just isn't cutting it by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Garth Webb Secondary School sports teams are scheduled to play 51 regular-season games this spring. None of them are slated to be contested on Webb soil. In fact, according to Webb phys-ed head Jay Anderson, the Chargers have hosted just one game -- a field hockey contest last fall -- since the school opened two years ago. The reason? A chronically-saturated athletic field that Anderson wryly suggests might be more appropriately used as a bird sanctuary than as a venue for field hockey, soccer, rugby and football. "A couple of weeks ago, it was just covered with geese. They enjoy it," Anderson says. Then the smile disappears. "We're a school who has just opened up, so you try to get traditions going. You try to get momentum going for school sports, and then you don't have a field to play on," Anderson says. "That makes it tough." School thought it would have artificial turf field At the root of the frustration for Anderson, other Webb faculty, students and parents is the fact that they were once under the impression -- correctly or not -- that their school would feature an artificial turf field, similar to ones installed at other recently-opened Halton District School Board high schools Dr. Frank J. Hayden in Burlington and Craig Kielburger in Milton. All Catholic high schools in Halton also boast artificial turf facilities, including Oakville schools Loyola, Holy Trinity and St. Thomas Aquinas. All of Webb's rugby and soccer "home" games this spring will be played on synthetic surfaces. The cost of renting other facilities is covered by the HDSB's reciprocal agreement with the Town of Oakville and other municipalities. Initial site designs for Garth Webb did include a pro- of Oakville. posal for an artificial turf field, HDSB superintendent of "The Town was never a potential partner in the early part facilities Gerry Cullen says, but that proposal was never of the process (at Garth Webb). The Town had a commitapproved. ment to an adjacent park (West Oak Trails Park), which is "When you go out to tender, you basically get pricing on already lit," Cullen says. two options. Option A is natural grass, OpThe issue came up again at a meeting last tion B is artificial turf, and then the board year when the HDSB reviewed Webb's field assesses the availability of other things," situation with the Town. Cullen says. "It was really a fact-finding meeting to "You also look at options on other feadetermine whether the Town would be intures within the gym, the library, office terested in the field being converted to arspace. Then, when we sit down to award tificial turf," says Chris Mark, the Town of the contract to the construction company Oakville's director of parks and open space. is when we choose the list of recommenda"At that time, we indicated the only way tions and mixture of options that will get we'd be able to support an artificial turf the best bang for our buck." field would be if the field could be lit. We Once all options had been reviewed, the couldn't make a business case to spend all HDSB determined there was not enough that money on an unlit artificial turf footmoney in the budget to fund an artificial ball field." turf field. Another possible reason Webb did not Gerry Cullen Artificial turf -- which Cullen says costs receive an artificial turf field was additional HDSB superintendent of facilities between $300-400K more to install than a money spent on construction of the school natural grass surface -- might have been building. The school entrance was initially feasible at Webb had the HDSB been able to partner with designed to face north towards West Oak Trails Blvd., but the Town of Oakville on the project. Part of the costs of Cullen says Town concerns about obscuring the view of Hayden's field were offset by the City of Burlington, which adjacent parks led to the main entrance being built on the is able to rent the facility out to other user groups. west side of the building. "(The design) didn't cost to change. But what did cost to Lack of partnership, cost of building might have led to grass change was... when the building footprint moved to the But the Town of Oakville's potential interest in co-funding Webb's facility was limited by the fact that the field west about 10-15 metres. That had a cost, because that was could not be lit at night, following the passing of a 2010 at the point where we had prepped the base. Preparation bylaw that restricted the lighting of new sports fields built for a parking lot is a lot different than for the base of a within existing residential areas. The Halton Catholic Dis- building," Cullen says. "That was certainly part of the cost of the project. I don't trict School Board's plans to install field lights at Aquinas know if we've ever broken down the dollars and cents of and Loyola hit a snag in 2009, when the Ontario Municipal see HDSB on p.40 Board ruled the HCDSB required approval from the Town We choose the... mixture of options that will get the best bang for our buck.