Salina to spend $1.7 million on Bill Burke turf improvements

Charles Rankin, Salina Journal
·2 min read
Members of the Salina Scrappers baseball team practice at one of the eight fields at Bill Burke Sports Complex in Salina. The fields will get improved artificial turf after the Salina City Commission approved a $1.7 million bid for the project.
Members of the Salina Scrappers baseball team practice at one of the eight fields at Bill Burke Sports Complex in Salina. The fields will get improved artificial turf after the Salina City Commission approved a $1.7 million bid for the project.

As it continues to become a destination for baseball and softball in the region, Salina is set to spend big on improvements to the turf of such fields at one of its parks.

During its meeting Monday afternoon, the Salina City Commission approved a contract bid for just over $1.7 million for new synthetic turf to be installed at the eight fields in Bill Burke Sports Complex.

Nemaha Sports Construction was the low bidder out of six different companies vying for the project.

Jeff Hammond, director of parks and recreation for the city, said Salina worked with Schwab Eaton, an engineering and design firm, on the project.

"Five of those bids were below the engineer's estimates that Schwab Eaton provided," Hammond said.

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A sophisticated, technical and realistic product

This improved turf won't be just a standard turf found but a more technical and more advanced turf.

"(This is) a turf product called slit film, which kind of resembles grass," Hammond said.

Jud Gladin from Schwab Eaton was on video call during the meeting to speak a little bit about the process the firm went through for the project.

"We were very happy with the number of bidders that we had interested in the project," Gladin said. "We do have experience working with Nemaha...and were happy to see that they were competitive."

Now that the bid has been approved, Gladin said the process of getting the new turf on the fields will hopefully move along quickly.

There is funding set aside for baseball and softball in the community and other improvements at the park are expected soon as well, including to the restrooms, but city staff said they wanted to focus on the turf and make it a priority before the baseball and softball seasons begin next year.

"We're going to get as much as we can get done before the season," said Jacob Wood, deputy city manager. "Our first goal was to get the turf bids in so we know how much money we have remaining. We'll get with Schwab Eaton in the next couple of weeks to determine what we might be able to get done."

The commission approved the $1.7 million bid by a unanimous 5-0 vote.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina approves $1.7 million bid for Bill Burke turf improvements