Written by Carol P. Bartold

Mar. 25, 2015: When Bronxville voters return to the polls on May 19 for the annual Bronxville Board of Education trustee election and budget referendum, they will also be asked to consider funding of a revised plan to reconfigure Hayes Field as a synthetic turf field.

The Bronxville Board of Education, at its March 19 meeting, unanimously approved a resolution to ask the public's authorization to use up to $1.79 million of the existing District Wide Improvements Capital Reserve Fund to pay for the Hayes Field reconfiguration. On January 22, voters defeated a question asking for approval to use $2.2 million from the same reserve fund for a comprehensive reconfiguration of Hayes Field, adjacent play areas, and on-campus parking.

"The persistent problem of field space has resulted in the exploration of many alternatives, including installing lights, renting property, and buying property," Superintendent Dr. David Quattrone said. He further stated that, at the end of the exploration process, the board concluded that an expanded, synthetic turf field available to the entire school population would best meet students' needs.

Elimination of permanent parking from the design concept reduced the budget by approximately $400,000. "This does not solve or address parking problems," Quattrone said, "but we are dedicated to pursuing that problem in conjunction with the village. We will take that as an issue to be studied separately."

Under the revised plan, the elementary school play area and the kickball area will remain intact. In response to community input, the plan includes a natural grass, sodded play area that is part of the current Hayes Field and adjacent to the elementary school play area. Hayes Field would be shifted to an east-west orientation from its current north-south orientation and be reinstalled as a regulation-size synthetic turf field with organic infill. The field would accommodate field hockey, lacrosse, and football.

To make room for the larger Hayes Field, trees would be removed along Midland Avenue, and a portion of the hillside that descends from the sidewalk to the current field would be excavated.

Erik Wilson, associate principal of KG&D Architects, addressed issues of drainage and storm water runoff on a turf field compared with a grass field. He pointed out that design requirements call for management of all storm water received on those of a turf field. The Hayes Field plan includes drainage built into the field as well as collection galleries under the field that would hold runoff and treat it in compliance with storm water management requirements. Wilson stated that a turf surface would not increase runoff from Hayes Field.

Wilson pointed out that the Hayes Field drainage system has no relationship to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Midland Valley Drainage Project, also known as the flood mitigation project. That project, Wilson stated, is designed to handle water in an event that is beyond the standard storm cycle.

Board president Denise Tormey stated that the board of education has addressed, to the best of its ability, all the issues that were raised over the course of a vigorous discussion about the district's chronic field shortage problems and alternatives for solutions.

"I believe it is a better plan than started out," Tormey said. "Our responsibility is to consider all the facts available and ultimately recommend a course of action we believe is in the best interest of the district, most importantly, our students. We do not believe any longer that inaction serves anyone's purpose."

Pictured here: Aerial view of (L to R) Chambers Field (the Bronxville football field), the proposed Hayes Field, and the proposed sodded play area.

Photo courtesy KG&D Architects