SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/183915
the grass? Wonder how far it'll fly? Do your operators understand their safety responsibilities and procedures when they turn on the key? It's simple but most safety is simple. When you are being "innovative" and come up with a contraption to move soccer goals, think twice and then ask the manufacturer. Sure a cradle makes life simple and easy and a tractor can do the heavy lifting. But do you realize that a goal's crossbar wasn't engineered to hold up the side posts? The posts were made to hold up the crossbar. The bouncing of moving a suspended goal is likely to stress the joints that could cause failure, which can lead to real tragedy. Treat the equipment properly and be very careful if you alter the intended use or disregard manufacturers' recommendations. Lightning is one we all have to deal with. My advice is, don't manually sound the all clear! Like pilots are taught, trust your instruments. If the sensors are still sensing the ion differential that is conducive to lightening, believe it. The term "out of the blue" ring a bell? The genius who asks you to manually override obviously has never been struck on a sunny day 30 minutes after the storm appeared to have passed. SERVICE ANIMAL TEST Considering allowing pets at your facility? An "only service animals" policy is a good idea. There is a series available of proper questions to ask of an owner of a qualifying service animal. The www.stma.org owners usually are trained for these questions. If they aren't, I say it's a pet. When contracting for use, detail penalties for groups that don't abide the no-pet policy. Be creative and forceful. If a violation of pets occurs and the parents are aware that their actions may cause a forfeit they usually respond in a proper fashion. The state of Illinois recently passed a concealed carry gun law. Be aware of what your state allows. I took a concealed carry class several years ago and I don't even own a hand gun. But I learned that if a facility is posted, you can't carry in that location. Remember, by law you have to post if you spray pesticides. I suggest that you post your facility for guns. You may ask, "Really?" and I'd reply you bet. We have all seen the news reports of sporting events ending violently. Check your local laws and consider going gun-free. ROAD OF GOOD INTENTIONS The road of good intentions, which we all know doesn't always go where we intended it to point it. There is a term "false knowledge." We may think we know what we are doing but if we are honest with ourselves we probably will recognize we really don't. That is when we should look to professionals in the area that we are considering treading. Fencing is a good example. One facility I know had an appealing split rail fence when built and the board decided to add more, even after they had been asked to put a cable through the fence to SportsTurf 29