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Town Council begins to consider how to pay for synthetic turf project

Avon High's football field and track and field complex.

Avon High’s football field and track and field complex.

AVON – Town manager Brandon Robertson anticipates a final proposal on Avon’s synthetic turf field proposal at Avon High to be ready for the Town Council to consider at its November 3 meeting.

Robertson and his staff have been working to come up with a final proposal for the Town Council since a joint public meeting with the Board of Education in September.

Last week, Robertson invited a representative from Day Pitney to the Town Council meeting to begin discussions with the Town Council about options to pay for the project. State Senator Kevin Witkos (R-Canton) also attended and discussed options for the town to obtain some potential assistance from the state to help pay for the project.

A subcommittee of the Recreation and Park Committee has recommended a $4.04 million proposal to replace the current football field with a synthetic turf field, a refurbished eight-land track and lights. The proposal would also include bleachers to seat 1,000 fans and a press box, a storage building and sports-related equipment such as hurdles, nets, pads and goals.

An optional proposal to install turf on the field currently used by the field hockey program was estimated to cost $1.13 million.

At the joint meeting in September, neighbors from Sudbury Way and West Avon Road expressed concerns about the use of lights, additional events in the evening and a hard policy surrounding the use of lights.

Robertson said the town is anticipating three sources of funds to help pay for this project – town funding, state funding and money from local fundraising efforts. This was method used to help pay for the recent expansion project at the Avon Free Public Library.

Witkos said that the state has helped 15 projects in the last 10 years to help install synthetic turf fields at the cost of $13.7 million. Most have been through the Bond Commission but some towns have received money from the Small Town Economic Assistance Program.

Farmington received $500,000 for its new field in 2014 while Torrington received $2.97 million in 2013 for a new field and track and field complex at their high school. In 2016, Derby received $2.9 million for a new field while Wallingford received $250,000 for work done to install new fields in town.

Witkos said the town can’t move forward to try and secure state funding until a project is final and defined.

Witkos was also realistic and honest about the challenge of receiving money from the state in the coming years with the challenges of the state budget. “There isn’t a pot of money sitting out there,” he said.

To reduce expenses, the state has already reduced the amount of money that the town receives for students enrolled in Avon through Project Choice and the Malloy administration has reduced funding to charter schools, who are expected to pass along the reduction to the home districts of the students.

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 30 years.

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