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After postponing the decision at its last meeting, the Troup County Board of Commissioners elected to go with turf for all three full-sized soccer fields at the ongoing Whitesville Road athletic complex renovations on Tuesday.

Since the topic was initially discussed, the commissioners received numerous comments from the public, with some advocating for all artificial turf and others advocating for all grass. Chairman Patrick Crews noted that one local mother had suggested having two turf fields for children to play on, and a third grass field for potential tournament play.

“She brought up the fact that and thought the best option was to go with two and one, two artificial and one natural, because it gives us an opportunity if there are people that want to have a tournament on natural grass, that we would have an option for a natural grass field,” Crews said.

Parks and Recreation Director Lance Dennis noted that the county already has three full-size natural grass fields available at the Chris Joseph soccer complex, which already hosts tournaments. While hosting tournaments or allowing club teams to practice on the fields is an option, ultimately, the goal for these fields is for places for local children to play in official parks and rec programming, he said.

As others noted, if there is a single field that is grass, there will likely be additional wear on the turf fields, as they are available year-round. Dennis said that grass fields have to be shut down for upwards of five months out of the year to regrow the grass; otherwise, everyone would just be playing on dirt.

The fields will be striped for multiple sports, so they can accommodate games and practices for soccer, football and potentially lacrosse.

While the artificial turf is more expensive to build, grass is more expensive to maintain. The life expectancy for the turf fields is estimated at around 15 years. They are warrantied for 10 years, but staff are expecting to get around 15 years of play. The cost to maintain the grass fields over 15 years is estimated at around $1.17 million.

The low bid for all three grass fields was $891,446.

In the end, the commissioners voted unanimously to go with the staff recommendation of turf for all three fields, awarding the contract to Sports Fields out of Canton, Georgia.

The contract includes the construction of three turf fields at a total of $2,293,155, GeoTech fabric under the fields for $60,000, one set of football goal posts for $23,515 and grass sod around the fields for $74,052.

Chairman Crews said the Callaway Foundation recently agreed to provide an additional $750,000 toward the project.