The athletic directors at each of the county's seven high schools have compiled a list of facilities needs for the Aiken County School Board to consider - a list totaling $39.9 million.
Members of the School Board asked District Deputy Superintendent David Caver to put the list together in response to a proposed plan to replace the grass field at North Augusta High School with artificial turf at a cost of $700,000.
"We asked Mr. Caver to bring back some information from the rest of the schools identifying what their needs are and whether or not they wanted the FieldTurf," said Levi Green, vice chairman of the Board. "That's when he got the athletic directors to tell us what their needs are. With no priorities behind it, they gave us a list of things that they really need at each one of the schools. This is not a wish list. These are real needs."
North Augusta High's football field would have been the first to get the artificial turf. The recent proposal called for the district to replace grass football fields with artificial turf at all high schools every three years over a 21-year period.
Supporters of the artificial turf at North Augusta High said the change is necessary because a number of teams, including soccer, and the band use the football field for practice and play, which causes wear and tear to the grass surface and increases maintenance.
Because the school is landlocked, practice fields cannot be built on campus.
The school has one small practice field now, and another was lost to current construction and renovation.
"The football teams are using that field now, the B (team), JV and varsity teams," said Keith Liner, whose district represents North Augusta. "It's got to be more than 100 athletes using that one field. It's a small area, and it's in need of repair for the safety of our athletes because of the constant use."
Liner said the ultimate goal at North Augusta High is to have all athletic fields on campus. Currently, sports such as baseball and softball are played at the City of North Augusta's Riverview Park, located roughly 5 miles from campus.
"It's a matter of safety for our athletes not to have to drive," Liner said. "If you talked to the principal and coaches, they'd much rather have the fields there on campus because they lose some practice time."
By a vote of five to four, the School Board on Tuesday defeated a motion to revise the district's Five-Year Facility Improvement Plan that would have allowed installing the new turf at North Augusta High this year.
Instead, the Board approved a motion creating a subcommittee to look at possible funding methods and the long-term needs of athletic facilities at all of the county's high schools.
The $39.9 million includes five requests of $700,000 each to replace grass football fields with artificial surfaces at five schools: Aiken High, South Aiken High, Midland Valley High and Wagener-Salley High, in addition to North Augusta High.
The athletic directors at Ridge Spring-Monetta High and Silver Bluff High did not list replacing grass with the artificial playing surface as a need.
At the Board meeting Tuesday, member Tad Barber said the District needs to have a comprehensive needs analysis done of the athletic facilities at all of the county's high schools.
"I think what we need to do as a board is to take a look at remedying all of the needs as best we can with the budget that we can come up with and go ahead and do the highest needs that we have," Barber said.
"I think this is one of those situations where North Augusta stepped up and there was money in the pot. They were the first one. Had Ridge Spring or Aiken High or somebody else come in first, they would be the ones getting the money. I think we need to take a comprehensive look first before we make a decision on any one school."
Tray Traxler, the District's comptroller, said each request of $700,000 to pay for a replacement football field at each of the schools that requested one would have to come from money in the district's Five-Year Facilities Improvement Plan that had not been used for the past three years.
The booster club at North Augusta High also planned to contribute to the cost of the field.
The District's Five-Year Facilities Improvement Plan includes an additional $200,000 for athletic facilities needs each year through the 2019-20 fiscal year.
Before the District commits $700,000 to any school, however, the School District needs "to get the pressing needs out of the way first," Green said.
"Everyone has the same needs as North Augusta," he said. "They say they have a field problem because they are landlocked and don't have space for practice fields. But most all of the schools have the same amount of students and same number of teams playing or preparing to play on the field.
"Their needs are no greater than Aiken High or Silver Bluff or the rest of the schools. We have plenty of land at Silver Bluff, but they still have to practice on the field."
Liner said he agrees with the School Board's proposal to put together a plan for athletic facility needs and funding at all county schools, but added that North Augusta High's need for more practice and playing space is immediate, and artificial turf would address that need.
"Right now, our field is in dire need of repair, and it keeps getting worse," Liner said. "We're going to have to continue spending money to repair it as a stopgap, and it's not going to be cheap. I see that as being tens of thousands of dollars. I don't think that's being good stewards of the taxpayers' money in the short term, just to put a Band-Aid on it."
An Aiken native, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He joined the Aiken Standard in September 2014.
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