Council to mull turf price for stadium

Avon City Council will dig into the numbers of replacing the field turf at Mercy Health Stadium, home of the Lake Erie Crushers.

On Sept. 20, council discussed plans to move forward on the project, deciding to bring the issue back before its finance committee to discuss the price tag for the city.

Prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the city received two quotes in late 2019, putting the cost at just under $600,000.

However, with costs going up, Finance Committee members Bob Butkowski and Dennis McBride both desire to study it further.

“Everything’s gone up in price, so I can only imagine the numbers we had from a year or two years ago, is going to be significantly higher,” Butkowski said. “And we had quite a few discussion points with regards to the previous numbers.

“So, I would just ask that before we were to move forward with anything regarding this, we might run it through finance before we approve moving forward with it.”

McBride, who represents Avon Council Ward 2 agreed, stating that if the price tag is too high, or potentially not having a proper stadium, it is important to examine these issues further.

“We’ve had those discussions in the past, and I think that it would be appropriate to revisit that and just make sure the numbers still make economic sense for the city, and what’s the payback,” he said. “Now, in some ways, it’s not a total financial payback to us… we have to maintain that venue.

“There are benefits to the local schools, but again, I agree that we should revisit that.”

The city is working with Sourcewell on cooperative purchasing and will look to install a two- and onequarter inch multi-purpose field that can be used, not only for baseball, but other sports such as lacrosse.

Service Director Mike Farmer said the city is waiting on final cost estimates from the company, which should be available in the coming days.

With the pandemic disrupting supply chains and creating shortages across industries, costs have gone up, Farmer said.

If an agreement is reached, the city would look to install the turf at some point in 2022, in the spring or fall, so as not to disrupt the Frontier League season, he said.

The stadium was constructed in 2008 and the original field turf was expected to last between 10 to 12 years.