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The Troup County Board of Commissioners has delayed a decision on whether to go with artificial turf or natural grass for the fields at the Whitesville Road Soccer Complex, currently under construction..

Bids were presented from several contractors with pricing for turf and natural grass. While there are many reasons to prefer natural grass, county staff recommended installing artificial turf as it will allow for year-round recreational use and significant maintenance savings in the long run.

Parks and Recreation Director Lance Dennis said when plans were being made for the soccer complex years ago, the thought was to go with grass fields. Staff estimated at the time that natural grass would cost upwards of $450,000 per field. Dennis said that since then, demand has grown, and they are reconsidering grass.

The life expectancy for the turf fields at the complex is estimated at around 15 years, far longer than the 10 years that Callaway Stadium got with its turf.

“They’re warrantied up to 10 years on a field like this, since we’re playing smaller kids and not playing the rough play of high school football, like Callaway Stadium,” Dennis said. “We’re anticipating that we get closer to 15 out of this. Because it’s mostly seven and eight-year-olds playing soccer on it.”

Dennis calculated that the cost to maintain the grass fields over 15 years is around $1.17 million.

“From having the grass cut, paying for the mowers, the fertilization, the pesticides, the stuff that goes on the field, the aeration, the replanting, the seeds in the winter, for the rye grass, stuff like that,” Dennis said.

The turf fields would be far more usable year-round, Dennis added.

“I can program multiple things on it year-round, whereas the grass field, pretty much June and July, nobody can get on it. I don’t let them on it, because that’s my only time to grow it back where it’s been beat down during the whole spring,” Dennis said. “In the winter, December, January and February, I don’t let anybody on it, because I’m trying to grow the grass, so they’ll have grass to play on in the spring.”

Dennis said they don’t plan to limit the fields to soccer. They will be striped for multiple sports so they can accommodate games and practices for soccer, football and maybe even eventually lacrosse.

“We are such a large county with so many different sports things going I didn’t want to limit this to just soccer. We’re in football now. We do not have one practice football field in the entire city limits here, or anywhere all the way from West Point to Hogansville,” Dennis said. “We have about 24 teams and no practice football fields.”

Dennis said girls flag football is also growing and needs places for games and practices.

“We had eight teams in our inaugural season last year. We used the field on the back of Griggs, which worked fine, but we don’t have lights there. So we had to start games at 5:15 p.m. and it was about dark when they finished,” Dennis said.

Ultimately, county staff recommended going with artificial turf for all three fields and drainage necessities for $2,353,145, along with natural grass sodding around the fields for $74,052.

Before any discussion on the matter during the evening meeting, the board tabled the issue until the July meeting to allow for more time to consider the issue.