Strong community support sways school vote on turf

School board votes 4-1 to allow turf field upgrades

By Kendra Walker

During the November 11 Gunnison Watershed School District board meeting, the valley’s athletics community — including student athletes, parents, coaches and administrators — turned up to express their support and needs for artificial turf fields to be installed at Crested Butte Community School and Gunnison Community School as part of the district’s facilities improvements and expansion project. After a nearly two-hour discussion that included hearing public comment advocating for synthetic turf, the school board voted 4-1 to authorize the project’s executive committee to include artificial turf in their consideration as they finish allocating items for the $4 million in unassigned funds in the budget. 

Since August, the district’s owner’s representative, Artaic Group, has engaged in research and community discussion with district administrators, water consultants, athletic directors and coaches and other representatives over the pros and cons between using either synthetic turf or natural grass for the three fields included in the scope of the expansion project, one at CBCS and two at GCS. 

Artaic presented their conclusions regarding synthetic turf based on the three main factors of health and safety, playability and performance and upfront and long-term costs.

From a health standpoint, Artaic noted the concerns about people being exposed to plastic products. Artaic’s John Usery explained that the state of Colorado has approved Senate Bill 24-081, which prohibits the installation of turf that contains intentionally added PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals starting in 2026. He also noted that natural materials can be used for the turf infill, and they have reached out to several manufacturers that have confirmed they can install a product that meets the state bill’s requirements. “We feel confident those (PFAS) can be excluded from any turf installed at your fields,” he said. 

The lifespan of an artificial turf is typically 12-15 years. Artaic’s Chris Guarino said an environmental concern is that, “as of now we’re not aware of any effective way to recycle it, so that does ultimately wind up in the landfill when it gets replaced.” 

Artaic noted in their written report that manufacturers are in the early stages of recycling programs. 

As far as playability and performance, Artaic explained artificial turf allows more usage of the fields, extends playtime around the shoulder seasons, requires less maintenance and provides a uniform surface that can help reduce player injuries. Artaic estimated that synthetic turf allows for more than 900 annual hours of use at the CBCS field, compared to 360 annual hours of use with natural grass. 

Artaic worked with FCI Constructors and turf installer Hellas Construction for initial cost estimates. The estimate for installing a synthetic turf with natural infill at CBCS is $1.45 million, compared to $418,000 to use natural sod to expand the current field and irrigation system. When factoring in a full 12-year life cycle, including installation, annual maintenance and replacement, the artificial turf cost estimate is $2.6 million compared to $1.1 million for natural grass. Snowplowing would add $70,000. 

For the Gunnison fields, Artaic proposed one synthetic field with natural infill and one natural sod field to cost approximately $1.57 million, compared to expanding and updating the current grass field into two fields for $759,000. The full 12-year life cycle estimates were $3.2 million for synthetic turf vs. $1.9 million for natural grass. However, Artaic noted that the overall cost per hour of use on the synthetic turf ends up being less for both CBCS and GCS. 

Artaic also asked MetRec to weigh in during the meeting as they have been heavily involved in the user group discussions. MetRec district manager Derrick Nehrenberg said he has consistently heard over the years and in the MetRec’s current regional recreation master planning process that there is not enough field space in the community. “It’s very clear that fields are a very big need,” he said. “Students have been turned away from programming because there wasn’t enough space or time to practice on the fields. It looks like a turf field offers double the amount of playing time, which is huge for our students.” Nehrenberg also said that MetRec is poised to consider making a significant contribution to the synthetic turf cost of the fields.

Public speaks up for turf

Public comments, focused heavily in favor of synthetic turf fields and how they would help extend sports seasons, decrease player injuries, and reduce scheduling and logistics stresses.

“We’re the only ski town without turf in Colorado and one of the only towns along the Western slope,” said WESA director of coaching Tom Lewis. “Having access to turf fields at both ends of the valley through the Gunnison School District is vital for developing our club and high school programs and other sports that are going through similar growth over the last few years. Natural turf field without PFAS is something we have pushed for since our inception 10 years ago.” He noted that the girl’s soccer team season spans from February to May and the boys soccer team regularly makes playoffs which runs into November. “When we are buried under snow for six months of the year, turf seems like an obvious choice for further development of all of our sports programs that use that field.”

“In the last three years the high school team has played home games in five or six different locations, which is really hard to get these kids pumped and get fans, parents, families and everyone on board when you don’t even know where you’re going to be playing your games the next day,” said WESA and lacrosse coach Carter Brock. 

Many parents touched on the logistical woes and environmental impacts of driving back and forth between the various and constantly changing locations for practices and games. 

“I’m here for the kids, I think they need more time. We don’t have the time that we need, we have to fight to be able to play anywhere,” said CBCS athletic director Abby McDonnell. “This last week was traumatic to try to find somewhere to play when we had three inches of snow on the field. Luckily we have an amazing community who was able to shovel it off and make some playoff games happen.” 

“The bigger issue for me is the girl’s soccer team, I think it’s just incredibly inequitable what we ask them to do for their season compared to the boys’ season,” said CBCS teacher, soccer mom and WESA board member Keely Moran. “It’s extremely unfair. They are at a huge disadvantage when they come into practice in February and they have to use the gym. It’s just a huge disadvantage for them and then they get to the playoffs and they’re playing against these teams who have been on turf and grass for four months and they’ve barely touched grass at all.”

“I think we’re all keenly aware of the positive impact that extracurricular activities have on students, both for physical and mental health,” said boy’s soccer head coach Than Acuff. “I think that needs to be a big part of this topic, providing opportunities for our student athletes to participate in sports and extracurricular activities, and that’s one of the main reasons why I’m supportive of artificial turf. This is an opportunity to keep them engaged in something that’s healthy rather than distracted by all the unhealthy things out there that they’re facing each and every day.”

Acuff and several others spoke about how many player injuries have been caused by the uneven surfaces and divots in natural fields, as well as less practice time on the field. “If you want to talk about injuries, nothing leads more to injury than not being well prepared for games,” said Acuff, noting that he loses at least one player every year due to injury. 

Community member Cori Dobson spoke out against artificial turf, expressing concern for the potentially harmful toxins and negative effects on the environment. “‘I’ve been speaking with parents and athletes across the country and they state that more injuries do occur on astroturf,” she said. “The material is also known to get very hot, has anybody thought about that if you walk on it? I’ve had my feet burned and potentially pets’ paws with our intense sun.” 

Dobson said she had visited an indoor facility in Breckenridge and wondered if something similar could be done here. “That was pretty amazing, I didn’t know if anybody has talked about doing something like that, that could be used year-round. There are many schools in Utah and other states that have those indoor fields so that sports can be played during the adverse weather seasons and used year-round.”

Cassia Cadenhead, who is a CBCS parent and is president of the MetRec board, addressed Dobson’s question about an indoor facility as the MetRec has recently looked into it during their master planning.

“We just had it priced out, it would be $8 million dollars. It would be artificial turf, it’s not real grass inside of the building and that’s not a regulation size field, that’s just a practice field.”

Board discussion

Superintendent Leslie Nichols said she had gone into this process hoping that grass fields would make the most sense, but noted how she has witnessed the decline of the condition of the school fields and the district doesn’t have the resources to maintain them at a high level. 

“We’d love to triple our maintenance staff to get close to doing that and I have a whole list of teachers and other staff that we also really need. We don’t have those conditions and we don’t have the money to have a golf course level turf crew to keep it safe.”

School board member Mark Vanderveer asked how the district can assure they would have the funds to replace the field in 12-15 years. Nichols said the district would basically use its capital reserve fund as a place to park funds each year. “We will continue to do our best to plan with better scheduling and better thinking today about what’s happening in 12 years,” she said. “It’s not perfect, we’re going to have different pressures in different years and different revenue levels in different years, but with the planning that has begun with this project across the board for lifecycle costs I think we are in a better position than we’ve ever been to say we’re not going to hang it on another bond measure in 12 years. That’s not the plan.”

“I’m always number one with what’s in the best interest for children,” said board member Mandy Roberts, who from early on has expressed her concerns about the negative health and environmental impacts of synthetic turf. “I think health is number one. And where there’s a will, there’s a way. I know we can make something else work. I appreciate everybody that’s here and everyone’s passion about what they want to do and have more time doing it. Yet, I can’t waiver on the fact that for our environment and our children it’s not the best to do artificial, synthetic turf. I stand on natural grass, that will be my vote.”

Several board members stated that they came into the meeting undecided, but the public turnout and comment helped sway their decision.  

“I want to really thank everybody who came here and spoke tonight. It really helped me understand the positive impact that it would have on this community, especially in the north end of the valley. So thank you,” said board member Anne Brookhart.

“I so appreciate Mandy’s position on natural grass,” said board member Jody Coleman. “I too am a natural grass advocate…but I appreciate the ability to have a beautiful playing field which artificial turf can provide. I’m concerned about the environment, the landfill, everything. This whole valley screams to protect the environment you know, but maybe we’ll have a better way to recycle those plastics,” she said. “This is a community school, it’s in our name of our schools, and I just want to impress upon you how you have presented a change in my heart tonight,” Coleman said to the crowd. “I will support artificial turf.” 

She continued, “I just want to thank you for your passion and showing up. That’s what athletes do, they show up. I want to support the holistic human being, thank you for your sacrifice to be here tonight, every one of you.”

The board voted 4-1, with Roberts voting against, to authorize the executive committee to include artificial turf in their consideration of the athletic fields that will be installed in the expansion project.