The time has come to replace the artificial turf on the Great Bend High School football field and the track that surrounds it, Assistant Superintendent John Popp said.

“We’re going on 14 years with our turf at the high school,” Popp told the USD 428 Board of Education at a recent meeting. “The warranty on those turfs is normally about eight years.”

Popp said he visited another stadium that was preparing to replace its turf for the second time. “They installed it the first time the same time we installed ours, so we’ve really done a good job.” He credited Transportation and Grounds Director Cody Schmidt and his department for keeping the turf up to date with regular brushing.

“I guess it’s just like the carpet in your house; the more you vacuum it the better off it does and the longer it lasts,” he said.

However, there are cracks all the way around the track now and indentations in the turf. And, like worn carpet, “you get a lot more burns when you slide on it.”

“We do not believe that we’re going to have to go into the base,” Popp said of the field. “We believe that was done very well, but we won’t know for sure until they pull the carpet off and see what the condition is. Most of the companies that do this are part of these pre-bid packages, like BuyBoard or Greenbush, and so we’re going to get some quotes and some proposals for what they think we need.”

The district is already aware that the asphalt underneath the track is not in good repair, Popp said. “They’re going to have to take it down to the base and that’s going to be some additional cost.”

Superintendent Khris Thexton said some of the edges of the turf aren’t too bad, but the wear is apparent in high-traffic areas. “We put more crumb rubber in that a couple of years ago to bring that back up, so that bought us a little more time. We’ve extended its life as long and as far as we can.”

Popp said the administration hopes to bring the school board some proposals in November and ask for board approval at that point or by December at the latest so the project can be scheduled as soon as possible.

The goal is to start working on it in May, as soon as track season and graduation are over, and have it ready in time for the first football game in September of 2023.

It is unknown how much the project will cost.

“One point five, maybe $2 million, I’m just guessing round numbers, at this point,” Popp said. “We’ll see when the proposals come back.”

District Operations Facility

This report from Popp was made at the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting. At that same meeting, the board heard a report from Todd Dumler, project manager for McCownGordon Construction, on the planning phase and construction timeline for the District Operations Facility located at 625 10th St.

The property was purchased in January 2022 to house the Transportation and Food Service Departments. McCownGordon is the district’s Construction Manager at Risk for the project.

 “There’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes,” Dumler said. “One of the things we said we would do is see if there was an opportunity to start some of the work early. It looks like we are going to be able to do that.”

The project superintendent is finishing another project early and therefore they plan to get him moved over here around the first full week of November — about five weeks earlier than originally anticipated. 

“With us mobilizing here in early November, we’re looking to get some of those exterior scopes of work completed before it gets really cold in January and February,” Dumler said.

He said there has been good participation from a variety of local trade partners.

Contributions approved

At the Oct. 10 meeting, the school board approved the following contributions and grant applications:

• Food Service will apply for an NSLP Equipment Grant for a combo oven for Great Bend Middle School.

• GBMS Robotics Club received a $1,260 contribution from DCCCA Inc. for participating in the SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everyone) Program. SAFE is a student-led program focusing on peer-to-peer promotion of traffic safety.

• Great Bend High School Activities received $102.55 in royalty contributions from Ohiopyle Prints Inc.

• The RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Club at GBHS received $200 from Animal Medical Center, $100 from Marmie Motors and $100 from Shawn and Desa Behr.

• Reward Incentive contributions totaling $4,068.94 have been received from Sunflower Bank for the ABC Program. This amount will be divided accordingly for each participating school.

• Ashley Davis, Jefferson Special Education teacher, will apply for two grants from the following companies to help fund accessible playground equipment at Park Elementary: Surfgimp Foundation, up to $1,000; and Walmart, $250 up to $5,000.

• The GBHS A Cappella Choir received $500 from Austin Nokes.