Scott Radley: Westdale high school's cherished sports field now a $1.25M dirt pile

It wasn't quite two years ago that the Hamilton public school board was proudly showing off its beautiful new natural-grass field at Westdale Secondary School.

Yes, it cost $1.25 million or so. And yes, many people in the community wanted more to be spent to get artificial turf so it could be used year-round by more than just students, and so upkeep wouldn't be so onerous. But it was gorgeous and less-expensive, so critics be damned.

Drive by that same field today and you'll either shed a tear or want to punch a hole in your dashboard.

Where once there was lush green grass - so green and so lush that teams couldn't even practice on it lest it got damaged - there are now scorched expanses of dirt pockmarked by a pathetic collection of weeds. Yes, some grass remains but most appears to have seen better days.

It is, in short, a gigantic mess.

I want to cry looking at it," says Westdale football coach, Mike King. It's unbelievable."

That is just about the perfect word for it.

The board's senior manager of facilities management says the problem appears to be the result of nature rebelling.

From what I gather ... we had a perfect scenario for, essentially, disease," says David Anderson.

These issues don't exist only at the corner of Longwood and Main, either. Dundas Valley Secondary got a new natural-grass field at a similar price tag around the same time. It too, now looks like a picture in which someone photoshopped brown most of the places green should be.

Anderson says he's been told that overwatering might have also been a contributing factor. And the trustee for Ward 1, Christine Bingham, says COVID-19 has made it difficult for staff to have access to facilities which didn't help.

Whatever the reason, this doesn't look great on the school board.

A few years back when discussions about the field reconstruction were underway, the push was on from several corners to install turf rather than grass. Like schools in the Catholic board have. With a Canadian climate that's hard on natural sod and plenty of demand for use by various community groups outside of school hours that could bring in rental revenue, an artificial surface seemed to make a lot of sense.

Despite this, the board decided grass was the way to go. It spent millions installing natural fields at Westdale and others schools. Until last year when it changed its mind and decided turf will eventually be installed at all public high schools.

We have been listening to the voices of the community," board chair Alex Johnstone said last June when that new decision was announced.

Listening a little too late, perhaps. As evidenced by the burned-out wastelands at Westdale and Dundas Valley that look like they were carpet-bombed with napalm.

Now they have to be fixed.

Anderson says the board isn't sure exactly what caused the disease and whether it might've been avoided. Either way, it's been more than a year since the fields were completed so repairs will likely not be covered by warranty. Meaning the board - read: taxpayers - could well be on the hook for the repairs.

I'm looking at how (school boards are) always crying for money," says Kaywana Gargarello, who was the spokesperson for the community group that had lobbied for artificial turf. Then they waste it like this."

On top of everything else, it's impossible not to remember that a few years ago when the sod was laid, the board locked the gates around the field to keep the public out. Why? Too much use might ruin it, was the official explanation. The grass needed time between events to breathe and recover. So they kept the community out and limited the number of usable hours to 25 or 35 a week even for students. King and his football teams couldn't even practice there sometimes and had to go offsite.

Then the place falls apart anyway. Which is probably making artificial turf look pretty good about now.

I was frustrated by that (decision)," says Ward 1 Trustee Bingham, who wanted the fake surface way back when but lost the fight.

Now she's hearing from people about the state of things. Bingham says calls and emails are coming in.

She says even though sports have been temporily cancelled, the board is hoping to get some grass growing by fall so phys ed classes - which really aren't supposed to be held in gymnasiums according to government back-to-school protocols because they're enclosed spaces - can have somewhere to go. But if the field is freshly sodded or newly seeded and hundreds of students are running around on it every day, the new grass will have no chance.

This whole thing might be laughable if it wasn't so agitating.

It's really, really, really disappointing," says King.

Anderson is asked if all this means artificial turf would have been the better decision from the start.

He pauses silently for several seconds.

I'll say, no comment."

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com