To the editor:

Thank you to all our parents, community members, and elected officials for their service to provide safe and high quality education and facilities to our students. 

As a BHS graduate, I am thankful for the education and facilities I have had access to here in town, acknowledging room for improvement. I'm grateful to share this town with dedicated community members such as yourself.

After reviewing the field analysis done by Traverse Landscape Architects (See pages 105 and 106), I have called several local providers, soil graders, and installers of sod fields. I have updated the Traverse analysis with local supplier estimates. 

Rhode Island has numerous local growers of grass sod. Local grower Turf Inc. in North Kingstown prices their sod at $0.48/SF. In the analysis done by Traverse Landscape Architects, cost was estimated at $1.50/SF, not including installation. For Victory Field's size, this is an overestimate of $79,787.97. 

Based on local suppliers, an estimate for an updated athletic complex and new track and field at Victory Field with grass sod would be $2,432,159.22. Estimated by the Traverse analysis, an updated athletic complex and new track and field at Victory Field with artificial turf is $3,456,916.45. Using grass sod instead of artificial turf gives our town an opportunity to save $1,024,757.22.

With the estimate for an entirely new grass sod Victory Field by a Rhode Island or Mass. supplier at $273,764.25, Barrington Public Schools could re-install the entire field with new topsoil, irrigation, and drains nearly four times with their savings by using grass sod instead of artificial turf. With just re-grading and installing new grass sod estimated at $82,721.74, Barrington Public Schools could reinstall the grass sod annually for more than a decade.

To download the excel cost analysis file, go to https://noartificialturfbarrington.com/resources/

I believe that Barrington athletes need a new field. For athlete health, financial, environmental, and public health reasons, I believe that field should be grass. 

Please issue a Request for Proposals for a grass sod field at Victory Field, instead of artificial turf.

Gratefully,

Blaise Rein 

Barrington