Marple Newtown to replace stadium turf for $671,200

NEWTOWN >> With a month left in the spring sports season, the Marple Newtown School Board is planning for the fall.

The board voted unanimously to accept a $671,200 proposal from Athletic Fields of America for the turf replacement project at the high school stadium. The work will involve installing new synthetic turf, resurfacing the track, updating the half-moon netting and relamping the current lights.

“The turf has a 10-year life and we have had ours for 12 years, so it needed to be resurfaced,” said Facilities and Transportation Committee Chairman Nick Reynolds. “We had a budget of $1.3 million, but the bids came in much lower.”

The work is part of a two-phase high school fields renovation approved by the board last year. The project is expected to include various degrees of revamping the stadium, multi-purpose field and two baseball and two softball fields and correct the walkway between the softball and baseball fields. At the time of the vote, the entire estimate was $5.6 million.

The directors moved by the same margin to approve the 2017-2018 proposed final budget of $81.3 million with a corresponding zero-percent tax increase. The budget would maintain the current rate of 18.1 mills and based on the average assessment of about $250,000 for homes within the district, the typical tax bill would remain around $4,525.

“With the growth occurring in both Newtown and Marple townships and the significant savings from our recent bond refinancing, we are able to continue investing in programs, technology and facilities without increasing taxes,” said board President Kathy Chandless.

The budget is available for inspection on the district website, www.mnsd. org.

The vote to final budget is June 27. adopt the slated for