FMHS may have turf field by August

BENEFITS OF TURF

The benefits are great and it’s also about being a good neighbor. The marching band practices up there and sometimes I get calls from neighbors about the amount of noise over there.”

Mike Wolter, FMCSD Superintendent

FORT MADISON – Jim Youel Field may finally get the overhaul it's deserved after 66 years on the southeast part of the Fort Madison High School campus.
The football field inside Richmond Stadium could be converted to an artificial surface before the start of the 2027 football season. The field would also be used for Bloodhound soccer and possibly bringing the Bloodhound marching band festival back to Fort Madison. The field was built in 1958 along with the original high school and was dedicated at the start of the 1958-59 school year.
The move, according to Superintendent Mike Wolter, is to show the community that the district is ready to invest in the deteriorated athletic facilities that have plagued the district for more than a decade.
The facilities are so bad that soccer and softball are now played at the Baxter Sports Complex on the city’s west side.
Wolter told the school board at Wednesday’s regular meeting that multiple school districts around the state have said they welcome Fort Madison as an opponent but they will not play on their fields.
“Putting turf in would get us our biggest bang for the buck and would affect the most students,” Wolter said.
He said soccer would come back to the campus and the football team could practice directly on the turf and that would take them off the baseball and softball field, which are also deteriorating.
“We could get those facilities back up to usable conditions. P.E. and marching band could come out whenever they want during the day,” he said.
“The benefits are great and it’s also about being a good neighbor. The marching band practices up there and sometimes I get calls from neighbors about the amount of noise over there.”
Wolter said the turf field gives the district buy-in to show the community that they are committed to improving things and have some skin in the game.
To that end, the board also discussed a potential general obligation bond that could be on the ballot next November. General obligation bonds require 60% voter approval on a ballot issue. The other option considered was a capital campaign with private stakeholder buy-in. A third option was to do nothing and keep maintaining the current facilities as best as possible.
The G.O. bond would include a complete athletic facility enhancement including rehabilitating the baseball and softball fields with potential enhancements, replacing the home stands and press box at the football field, improving locker rooms, weight rooms and athletic enhancement facilities at a preliminary cost range of $15 to $35 million depending on a needs assessment.
The school district has failed to reach a supermajority multiple times in the past 12 years to improve district facilities. That, according to board member Mio Santiago, is why the district has been unable to sufficiently maintain its facilities because those funds, which come from the district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) fund, had to be coupled with state SAVE funds to improve the district school buildings.
The bond option would require forming a volunteer committee and developing a needs assessment and then moving forward with a plan.
The cost estimate for the turf field would be $1.6 million to $2.4 million. District Business Manager Sandy Elmore said the PPEL fund has sufficient money in it to pay for the new turf and have more than $2 million remaining to complete current projects in the pipeline.
The approval of the board was to hire DLR, the same design firm the district used for the last facility improvements to the elementary and Jr./Sr. High Schools.