School District, Southampton Town Board Getting Closer to Vote on CPF Money for Marsden Street, With Playing Surface at Center of Discussion

Southampton Town officials — including Supervisor Jay Schneiderman — spoke last week about the proposed plan for the town to contribute $6 million in Community Preservation Fund money to partner with the Sag Harbor School District on the purchase of land on Marsden Street that would eventually be developed into an athletic field for both school and community use.

The district has been waiting for the Town Board to schedule a vote on whether to allocate the $6 million of CPF funds, and Schneiderman said the proposal was likely to garner board approval — but only if the district agrees not to install an artificial turf field.

“The idea is to create a community park that both sides agree to, and the Town Board majority position has been that we want a natural park,” Schneiderman said. “We didn’t want synthetic turf.”

The playing surface has been central to the months-long discourse surrounding the Marsden Street property, with many residents stating their belief publicly in various forums that artificial turf poses a health hazard to anyone playing on it because of the chemicals present in the artificial “grass” and the crumb rubber infill, which is often made from recycled tires.

The district has not yet officially agreed to only consider natural grass. Superintendent Jeff Nichols said he and the School Board have asked the Town Board to consider what could be a compromise option — a hybrid surface that is promoted by the company that makes it, Turf Talents, as being 90 percent grass and anywhere from 5 to 10 percent artificial fibers, in the root zone. The hybrid surface has been installed at several universities across the country.

Schneiderman said the board would consider that option “in good faith,” but he did not express much confidence that it would gain traction as a viable option.

He explained the board’s thinking on insisting on natural grass: “The majority of the board feels it should be a natural field, because a significant number of members of the community are concerned about artificial turf and the health impacts, and why would we spend $6 million to create something that a significant portion of the community won’t use?”

Nichols said he extended an invitation to Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni — which he ultimately declined — to hear about the hybrid turf option. When reached via text message earlier this week and asked if he would consider the hybrid option, Schiavoni declined to answer, saying only, “We are still where we were last week; that is that we have an offer to the Sag Harbor Union Free School District School Board.”

Schneiderman added that the district has also asked the Town Board to consider an irrigation system that could potentially create better drainage and provide optimal watering for the field. Because the field will be in heavy use, since it will be used by not only the district sports teams but also members of the community, keeping it in playable condition will be an added challenge. Natural grass requires more maintenance and upkeep than artificial turf.

While there is still back-and-forth about the playing surface holding up the town from scheduling a public hearing and subsequent vote on whether to allocate the CPF money, both Nichols and Schneiderman said the deal overall is in a better place than it was this fall.

In October, the town backed away from its initial offer of $6 million, saying it might only contribute $4 million to the purchase. But in the week leading up to the holiday break, Schneiderman called Nichols to let him know that the board had agreed to go back to the original $6 million offer.

District voters in November approved the allocation of $3.25 million for capital reserves to cover the rest of the purchase price of the four lots. If the purchase goes through, the district will then need to finalize a development plan and present it to the community for a bond vote before the land can be turned into an athletic field.

Nichols said he was still hoping to schedule a presentation on the hybrid turf option for the Town Board and added that he and the School Board would like to give the public a chance to hear more about the hybrid option at the district’s next community forum on Marsden Street, which he said would be scheduled for sometime next week.

He said the company could potentially ship a sample of the hybrid turf to the district so residents and members of the Town Board could get a feel, literally, for what it’s like, and that a representative from the company could also come to the forum.

While that could potentially delay the scheduling of the Town Board’s public hearing and vote on allocating the CPF money, Nichols said the district did not expect to drag it out much longer, acknowledging that the seller will not wait forever.

“In fairness to the seller, the district has to bring this to a close,” Nichols said. “We have a limited time frame to make this happen.”