Festival damages field

By Phil Witte
Daily Forty-Niner

In an attempt to repair damage caused by the Blues Festival, Physical Planning and Facilities Management is beginning a $25,000 renovation on the eastern edge of the athletic field.

"The process involves removing stolons [acreeping grass] from the native grass, leveling the areas underneath, and reincorporating them on the renovated area," said Robert Quirk, director of facilities management administration.

"The rest of the athletic fields are being renovated to a lesser degree," Quirk said. "They are being aerified, fertilized, having potholes fixed, or having irrigation systems repaired."

The major work is being done by outside contractors, as the process requires specialty equipment.   Originally targeted at a 60-day recovery, it has been increased to 90 days. It will be spring semester before the fields can be used again.

The department most affected will be kinesiology and physical education, which will have to adjust to less space on the athletic fields.

"It is very important to us," said Michael Lacourse, department chair of kinesiology and physical education. "That's not just open space out there, those are classrooms to us. We have to put people in other places at a great inconvenience."

With the areas off-limits for the rest of the semester, physical education classes will have to cram into whatever space is available.

"The archery class had to move to George Allen Field and the soccer and football classes have shifted onto the rugby field," Lacourse said. "We also have lecture-lab classes that have to go into the fields in the afternoon to do physical activities that will be affected."

One school activity that has not been adversely affected is intramural sports. "We're working around it and making do," said Intramural Club Sports Director Rita Hayes.

"The classes are in the morning and early afternoon, and the club sports don't practice until late afternoon," Hayes said. "Since the intramural teams play on Friday when there are no classes, we will not have to cut back on the number of teams."

The area used for the Blues Festival receives the same wear, and faces the same repairs every year.

"If the University keeps renting out the facilities to events like the Blues Festival that cause the most damage, next year we'll be right back where we started from," Lacourse said. "The extent of the repairs this year is much more than before. It's very difficult to get it back into shape and at this rate big repairs will have to be done every two or three years."