Dalton’s synthetic grass practice field closer to reality

Dudley Field at Vanderbilt Stadium and Dalton High School’s practice field might feel the same under Catamount cleats next year.

The Dalton Public School Board of Education will continue negotiations with Shaw Sports Turf to oversee placement of the same synthetic grass used by the Vanderbilt Commodores for the first time this year, replacing Dalton’s natural grass practice field with a 90,600-square-foot artificial grass field.

Harmon Field, which is owned by the city of Dalton, will remain a grass field.

The board awarded the project to Shaw Sports earlier this month, but the final price, including a new track circling the field, has not been finalized. The cost for the base field is $498,379, up from $449,217 in the request for proposal that was received on Sept. 24.

The new price includes 8,900 more square feet, a red letter “D” in the center of the field and the words “Dalton” and “Catamounts,” also in red, in separate end zones. The project should be completed by early next year.

Brandon Harrison, director of operations for Dalton Public Schools, believes the price Shaw Sports Turf offered is the best option.

“From the beginning, we wanted a company that could handle everything and that’s what we looked for,” Harrison said at Monday’s board meeting. “After we got the proposals, (Shaw) was the cheapest baseline price so we began negotiations with them.”

The company also submitted a premium bid that includes the installation of a 2-inch shock pad and drainage system called Brock PowerBase, bringing the bid to $645,965, up from $612,752 for the original 81,700-square-foot bid.

Dalton head football coach Matt Land said both the base field and premium field will make players play safer and better.

“We want our athletes to be faster,” said Land. “The underlayment is beneficial to that. If you can increase the quality of the product, the safety of the product and the performance on the product, it’s good unless you have a cost aspect you have to consider. I called quite a few college programs and they are putting in similar underlayment.”

The “bolt fiber” Shaw is planning on using is made from 70 percent processed rubber and 30 percent sand filling.

“It was designed for maximum performance so you know you are getting the best performing field possible,” said Chuck McClurg, Shaw Sports Turf vice president of sales.

Land agreed.

“Athletically speaking, you’re about to build the premiere field in this county,” he said. “You’re going to have a field that is marketable, you’re going to see profitability and you’ll be very desirable.”

One option for profit is renting the field out, said Land, who asked the board to consider improving the seating around the field because he believes more people will come to see the new field.

The discussion about a new practice field started early this year, said Superintendent Jim Hawkins, who said it “bubbled up” from conversations about the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for education (ESPLOST).

“We did a needs assessment on facilities a couple of years ago,” said Hawkins. “After ESPLOST we had some unmet needs so we amended our budget. We did not want to do this project if we had to cut in other areas.”

Three other companies — AstroTurf, Field Turf and Hellas — also sent bids to the school system, but we’re not as competitive as Shaw Sports, Hawkins said.

Hawkins said the board’s decision to go with Shaw over the competition was “subjective, but weighed” and had nothing to do with Chairman Danny Crutchfield’s employment by Shaw Industries. Crutchfield, director of training for Shaw, said he has had no say on the project and has only asked a few questions in board meetings.

“We focused on pricing and material to make our decision,” Hawkins said. “The committee’s decision was our own, but it focused on those two things above any other factors.”

The committee included Hawkins, Harrison, Chief Financial Officer Theresa Perry, Dalton High School Athletics Director Ron Ward and Architect Gregory Smith, who was brought on for his “technical expertise.”

An assessment of the proposals was done on Sept. 28 using a 100-point scale to judge each company’s firm experience, use of local firms, financial strength (including insurance and debt to equality ratios), pricing, material, installation schedule and distinguishing factors (including economic impact to the local community and additional products that each company offered).

Shaw received 95 points; AstroTurf got 85.

Even though Shaw is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated — located in Omaha, Neb. — Hawkins believes it has a stronger local presence because it employs 24,000 workers, while AstroTurf employs 12,000 workers. Both received a score of 10 on use of local firms.

“Shaw is so much bigger in terms of a presence in Whitfield County,” said Hawkins. “AstroTurf came from a Texas owner who filled bankruptcy in 2004 and the company is registered in Michigan. I think Shaw has a bigger case here for being local (even though the numbers are tied).”

Shaw scored higher than AstroTurf in experience, financial strength, material and distinguishing factors, but scored lower in pricing.

“Shaw has since matched AstroTurf in a lot of areas,” Hawkins said. “Shaw had an 8 percent management fee, but they have lowered it to match AstroTurf’s management fee of 6 percent. We took a lot of care in every issue of each company.”

Board member Mark Orr said he believes this is the “best possible product.”

“We went over everything and I didn’t like the process of how we did this,” Orr said. “Nevertheless, I didn’t get in the way. I am convinced now that we’ve worked to get a good price and a good product.”

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Dalton’s synthetic grass practice field closer to reality

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