Community Corner

Council Forms Turf Oversight Committee; Football to Play in Meriden, Cheshire

The turf installation project in now well underway and the Southington High School Blue Knights are hopeful they will finish the season at home – but in the meantime, games will be played on neighboring turf fields.

Things are looking quite different at ’s Fontana Field these days, with the soil removed and a cement curbing lying inside the area where the track was supposed to be. By Oct. 31, officials said the installation of turf should be fully complete – if not sooner.

To make sure that the field use is implemented properly once the installation is complete, the this week appointed a turf committee to provide scheduling and maintenance oversight, consider fundraising a more.

The council voted unanimously Monday to appoint the five-member panel led by Michael DeFeo, who served as the chairman of the Turf Exploration Committee. Council Chairman John Dobbins said the committee would also contain council members Dawn Miceli and Peter Romano, Board of Finance member Joseph Labieniec and Board of Education Chairman Brian Goralski.

“The committee will determine all policies and procedures as it relates to field use and scheduling,” Dobbins said.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

In addition to the voting members, Southington High School Athletic Director Eric Swallow, John Fontana, Parks and Recreation Director David Lepreay and either Garry Brumback or his designee will serve as ex-officio members.

DeFeo said he is pleased with progression of the field so far and said work has been done to this point with an eye on safety.

“The crews have done good job and they’ve been very cautious, DeFeo said. “There is a target date of Oct. 24 to Oct. 31 for completion and if weather holds up, we should be in very good shape.”

The turf carpeting could begin to be laid out in as soon as two weeks, officials said. In the meantime, the field remains unavailable for use, which has forced the Southington Blue Knights football team to seek alternate locations for scheduled home games in the meantime.

But it’s not all bad news for the Blue Knights either. The alternate home fields will provide an opportunity for the Blue Knights to get some practice playing on turf.

According to the CIAC website, the team will take on Newington during it’s first home game on Sept. 29 at Cheshire High School, which had new turf installed in 2011, and will travel to Falcon Field in Meriden on Oct. 6 for their second home game against Conard High School under the lights.

The locations for home games on Oct. 19 and Oct. 26 have not yet been scheduled.

"Music of the Knight," the Southington High School Marching Band's annual competition at the end of October, is expected to be held at Fontana Field as scheduled provided there are no major delays, DeFeo said.

Make sure to like Southington Patch on Facebook or follow on Twitter for breaking news, daily updates and more!

Find out what's happening in Southingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here