Blount commission considering $1.6 million for Everett Recreation Center turf, lights

Plans to renovate one of Blount County’s busiest sports centers come with a few nods to the past and a $1.6 million price tag.

Maryville-Alcoa-Blount County Parks and Recreation will be able to move ahead with a multi-field, $1.6 million site development project at Everett Recreation Center if the Blount County Board of Commissioners signs off during its next meeting Thursday, May 16. The project would include installing synthetic turf in both of the center’s fields, as well as fencing and new lighting for the football field.

Parks and Recreation Executive Director Joe Huff has said in the past that the central reasons for the proposed changes are safety and usability. Installing synthetic turf would increase the usability of the fields, he’s commented, since wet weather and mud can make play at Everett impossible or unsafe. An aging lighting system along the football field presents similar concerns.

And though design plans have yet to be finalized, Huff told The Daily Times during a phone interview Monday, May 13, that he hopes the renovation also includes an opportunity to acknowledge the sports center’s previous life as a high school. One idea, he said, would be to place an image of the old Everett High School mascot — a bulldog — in the center of the football field.

“We’re wanting to kind of honor the old Everett High School,” he said.

County commissioners voted to send the site development proposal to their Thursday meeting during a May 7 workshop session. If it meets approval, the project could get underway this month and be completed by August, in time for the next football season.

Vendors

The Everett fields see heavy use for most of the year. Huff’s noted previously that with the levels of practice and play the fields see from the spring through the fall — inside and outside of the grass fields’ growing seasons — that he’s had a few reservations about safety in the past. The process of changing those fields has been split into several parts.

Athletic Surfaces Pro has worked with Parks and Rec on design and bid preparation for the project. The county commission earlier this year approved the use of $75,530 from the county fund balance for their work.

ACTGlobal would be responsible for the components of the project involving turf, according to Huff. About $850,000 of the total project will go toward football turf. “Nationwide will do the grading” parts of the project, Huff said Monday, and Parks and Rec is finalizing a vendor for the lighting.

Process

Everett High School isn’t the only part of county history to have entered into officials’ minds during discussions of turfing Everett.

While both the prospective vendors and the $1.6 million price were the subjects of praise from county Mayor Ed Mitchell during a budget committee meeting last week, Mitchell also raised a previous turf project — at William Blount and Heritage high schools — and said that he had some regrets about that process.

He opened by saying, in part, “I think this is a great example of how we work together for the best interest of the citizens and confirms for me a bigger problem we need to address.”

He wondered, he said, why the Everett project would be significantly less than the high school turf. Last year the commission signed off on a $4.2 million turf contract after an extended controversy and multiple public meetings involving what the county’s attorney termed a ‘tainted’ initial process.

“If we did the high schools for what we’re doing Everett for (the school) fields would have totaled only $1.7 million,” he commented, saying that difference could have gone to fund other Blount County Schools budget requests. “I’m disappointed, and I want to apologize to the citizens for my part in the previous project being approved, because I did vote ‘yes’ for it.” He said he still supported installing the turf at the high schools, but that the additional expense rankled.

“The most important thing that we’ve got to remember is funding our classrooms,” he said. “I need and I want the citizens to know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I voted for it and didn’t do more due diligence.”

In a statement to the newspaper, a BCS representative provided a response that reads in part, “Blount County Schools followed appropriate purchasing procedures for the WBHS and HHS athletic turf projects. The funds for the projects were appropriated through the use of 141 fund balance, which is a non-recurring revenue source used for one time expenditures.”

“We are so grateful for the support of the Blount County Board of Education, Blount County Budget Committee, and Blount County Commission in funding these projects. Our students and families have already benefited greatly from the turf fields using them for important events like Special Olympics and most recently high school graduations. We look forward to the continued use of the fields to support our students,” the response continued.