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/34725
Facility&Operations final grading and re-sodding. “We went with Lohmann’s group because they do this for a liv- ing,” says Pechette, noting that LSF boasts a client list that ranges from local high schools like his, to the Notre Dame Football Sta- dium (re-surfaced in 2008), to the creation of minor league baseball diamonds from Grand Rapids, MI to Peoria, IL. “These guys are experts at the big work, but they pay attention to small details. There were no shortcuts; everything was done ac- cording to the engineering plans from Gewalt-Hamilton. Every- thing was so transparent, and I especially appreciated their paying attention to work-limit areas and not damaging any more than need be. Everything was cleaned up so well when they were done.” You can see where this is going—actually, maybe you don’t. If that were the end of the story, it would be a simple (if not terribly uncommon) matter of an experienced sports field contractor clean- ing up the mess left behind by a less experienced contractor. But Lohmann Sports Fields is forging a relationship with Lakes Community HS that may be unique to sports field management at the scholastic level because it will continue beyond the initial project. LSF, along with Gewalt-Hamilton and other consultants are now formulating an ongoing maintenance schedule at Lakes Com- munity that allows Pechette and his crews to tackle items like aera- tion within the confines of a normal budget cycle. “This isn’t the sort of thing that the big contractors normally get involved with,” said Jim Lohmann, senior project manager at LSF. “But we’ve spent a big chunk of the last 2 years talking to park dis- trict executives, high school athletic directors and recreation direc- tors from across the Midwest. The market is changing. A lot of these guys are dealing with long-term budget reductions, meaning they are looking for new ways to more efficiently (and effectively) care for their sports fields. “That sounds very general but it’s really quite specific. These school and park districts all have the same maintenance needs. We’ve identified 10 of the most common needs and formulated in- dividual programs to address those needs, each for less than $10,000. This dollar figure is critical. Not all school and park dis- tricts operate identically, but the $10,000 price tag generally falls 34 SportsTurf | July 2011 below the traditional threshold cost for projects that require a bid process. “In other words, anything more expensive may require a bid, an RFP or months of planning, and a series of approvals from higher up in the bureaucracy.” Tom Rychlik, a civil engineer with Gewalt-Hamilton, says that none of these advances in servicing park and school districts would be possible without an understanding of the public sector hierar- chies and budgeting mechanisms. “At most public agencies, budgets are not set up for capital im- provements,” Rychlik says. “You need to add maintenance costs an- nually to properly care for a newly built or renovated field, to protect your investment. Park districts that have an agronomist on staff already know this, but if you do not—or you are a school dis- trict, which rarely have an agronomist on staff—then this sort of strategic outsourcing makes a lot of sense. It’s easier to budget and provides access to this expertise.” At Lakes Community H.S., LSF would handle aeration on this out-sourced basis, if you will. As Lohmann noted, it’s a new high school and doesn’t have all the equipment on hand to efficiently prepare its fields, especially at the start and end of the season. The same holds true for established schools that are too small to invest in such expensive equipment. “That’s where we see an opportunity to help,” says Lohmann. “We have the equipment, expertise and manpower to knock these jobs out quickly, on short notice. And the large volume of work that we do allows us to price the work just as efficiently, especially when schools in the same district contract together. “Here’s another example of how this sort of out-sourced, ongo- ing maintenance can work: laser-grading,” Lohmann continues. “This is a big expense for park districts and schools. Every year when they’re getting baseball and softball fields ready for the spring season, they fill depressions and grade things off. Over time, the in- field gets built up and is actually higher than the rest of the field, or the mix gets pushed to the perimeter leading to lip and drainage problems and a potential rebuild of that field, at some point. That’s expensive. www.sportsturfonline.com