Scorched Turf Will Cost $65,000 to Fix
(07/23/2009) A 20-by-60-foot dollar sign that was burned into East Hampton High School’s synthetic turf football field will cost $65,000 to repair, according to Raymond Gualtieri, the district superintendent.
The scorched turf was discovered on July 5. With it was an anonymous five-page letter criticizing the school board, school officials, and school taxes. The letter particularly took aim at the district’s $79 million expansion project, which the writer said was fiscally irresponsible to continue in the current economic climate.
The letter left on the field was taken as evidence by East Hampton Town police. Another copy, which arrived at The East Hampton Star by mail on July 7, was turned over to the police at their request. School administrators have not heard from them since the incident, which, according to Chief Todd Sarris, “is still under investigation.”
In the meantime, soccer, field hockey, and football teams have been practicing on the field. “We’ll do whatever we can to make sure it doesn’t cut into the kids’ playing time,” Dr. Gualtieri said. “If it’s going to take a long time” to repair, he said, “we can always cut the dollar sign out and put a piece of green in its place.”
In all likelihood, the field will be repaired before the students’ first home games in the fall, he said. In the meantime, the district will have to cover the $10,000 deductible before insurance begins to cover the cost of the repair.
“We’re in summer mode. What we’re doing is using the half-field and working around it at this point,” said Joseph Vasile-Cozzo, the district’s athletic director. He said student athletes were “concerned and upset,” but that “kids are extremely resilient — they don’t stress as much as we do.”
School administrators have said there would be no way to stop the project because the bond was approved by East Hampton taxpayers and contracts have already been awarded. In fact, the construction project at the high school is well under way, with major renovations, including the reconstruction of the parking lot and addition of two new wings, taking place this summer.
Replacing the field, track, and bleachers was the first phase of the construction project. It cost about $1 million.
The expansion project has been a bone of contention for some who live outside the East Hampton School District, the vandal noted in the letter. Only East Hampton School District residents were eligible to vote on the bond in 2006.
However, taxpayers from Springs, Montauk, Amagansett, Wainscott, and Sagaponack, districts that send their students to East Hampton High School, are helping to foot the bill of the renovation through increased nonresident tuition payments.
The writer also blamed “the majority of taxpayers” for “not holding the board accountable.”
“Perhaps the board continues to spend money irresponsibly because small groups of people gather to ensure a majority vote on issues important to them in the absence of the larger population’s participation. This is most likely how the decision regarding the football field came to be,” the letter said.
Mr. Vasile-Cozzo said that members of the community who are not affiliated with the school are free to use the field, including neighbors who use the track outside of school hours and peewee football leagues. “I could take my daughter to fly a kite in the field any time I want; that’s one of the benefits of having a field for the community,” he said.
“We’re doing some great things here. Honestly I was saddened to see it happen,” he said of the vandalism. “We have worked hard here to improve the facility, and we take a lot of pride in the grounds.”