Harford Community College women's lacrosse players practiced Tuesday evening on a stadium field that has seen better days, but the artificial turf field installed in 2007 will be replaced starting at the end of this month.
The Harford Stadium field has visible holes in the turf, and the seams where sections of turf come together are pushing up. That damage did not stop head coach Nikki Murphy from running her players through drills in which they took shots on the goalie.
A new field would be appreciated, though.
"It will be very helpful," said Murphy, who is in her fifth season at HCC.
The process of installing the field is scheduled to start May 31, after the lacrosse season ends, and last through June 21. The members of the college's Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $409,000 contract with Sports Construction Management Inc., of Lexington, N.C., Tuesday evening to install the AstroTurf field.
"The turf has reached the end of its useful life," Vic Dodson, assistant vice president of procurement, told the trustees at their meeting Tuesday night.
He said the existing field has an eight-year warranty, and it was installed nine years ago. Harford Stadium's field is used for lacrosse, soccer, continuing education activities and miscellaneous activities as requested.
The new field comes with an eight-year warranty, Dodson said.
Trustee James McCauley asked if the new field will be made with ground-up rubber.
"I still have some concerns about carcinogenic factors associated with that ground-up rubber," he said.
National media outlets have published stories in the past two years about young athletes, many of whom are soccer players, getting cancer and a potential link between the disease and the artificial turf fields on which they play. Several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Consumer Product Safety Commission began a study in February on any potential health hazards caused by crumb rubber, which is made from recycled tires and is among the materials found in many artificial turf fields in the U.S.
The agencies are scheduled to release a draft report in late 2016, according to a news release on the EPA's website.
Dodson said the new field does not include crumb rubber. He said it will have a "thatch, or root zone, which is a horizontal nylon web-like material" through which sand and rubber materials can filter.
He said the same material was installed on the HCC baseball field more than a year ago.
"Our own feedback is that it's good," Dodson said.
The college must pay for a separate contract with the company that installed the existing field in 2007, to repair damage to part of the sub-base section under the turf.
One corner of the field collapsed, and the previous contractor, Greene Construction, will spend about a week repairing the sub-base before the new field is installed.
The cost of the repair contract has not been determined yet, but Steve Garey, associate vice president for campus operations, told the trustees "we don't think it's going to be substantial."
The work would involve a mini-excavator and the labor to repair the sub-base, Garey said.
Garey noted the collapse, which caused a sinkhole to open in a corner of the field, cannot be attributed to the work Greene did in 2007, but to an older "under-drain system" installed in the 1960s that includes underground pipes and "massive" collection chambers.
"We tied into that system, and we feel that that is where that failure is, in that corner of the field," he said.
Garey said the breach in the sub-base is "allowing soil to get into the piping, and then the rainwater is carrying that down the storm drain system."
He said Greene has been selected for the contract because the company installed the existing field and sub-base and has the records from that project.
"We felt we could get the best value from them," Garey said.