If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves.

Or lose our venture.

Shakespeare put those words in the mouth of Brutus, who was conspiring with Cassius to defeat Marc Antony and Octavian (later Augustus), before the Battle of Philippi. High tide was high time to act, Brutus insisted. After that, advantage is lost.

We see that principle played out over and over, don’t we? Sometimes when we see the low tide results of action “omitted” at high tide, all we can do is experience chagrin, and vow not to let that happen again.

A result here, a couple of years back, of not using the opportunity of renovating the school’s athletic complex to install artificial turf, is that the opportunity to put in place that better surface was foreclosed, for practical purposes, for years to come.

The artificial turf option, then, was voted down, 5 to 4. So blame any of those five for the various results, none of them good.

The artificial turf option would have given us a soccer field, on school property. The drainage system that goes with artificial turf would have been installed at that time, and before the new bleachers were constructed.

Other niceties that were omitted were easily accessed restrooms for spectators, including visitors—surely much to be preferred to porta-johns, and their ongoing associated costs lack of amenities.

Where would soccer be played, after that short-sighted decision by the barest possible school board majority? Very soon the borrowed field behind the container plant would become unavailable, subsumed by the flood control project.

There were various possible solutions floated on that ebbing tide. To its/their credit, the board chose the least impractical. Superintendent Gary Buchsen presented those possibilities in a thorough and even-handed way. That plan has been carried out well, from what I can see.

The kids can play soccer there. The owners of this borrowed field have been gracious, and also have received some improvements worth having. Other, community-based programs will continue to use that recreation area.

The school district has put considerable money into a facility it does not own and can’t control. It’s a good faith arrangement. But soccer practice and games are still played at a distance from the school, and players and coaches must be shuttled to and fro, and parents and fans must drive out of town.

As we look at the new Gator sign on Main Street, we see that it proclaims “here” to be the home of the Gators. Well, yes, I guess, but if we are thinking of the soccer Gators, “here” is Liberty Township, not Port Allegany.

At some future time this community will insist on the ever more widely adopted playing surface for sports and other uses, artificial turf.

Opponents back when the choice was being considered presented such reasoning as that artificial turf was a bad playing surface; it would contain harmful chemicals;  the chemicals might get into the Lillibridge; pregnant women should not be exposed to those chemicals; at some point the artificial turf would have to be replaced and that process would be expensive; and natural turf, like everything natural these days, is superior to anything synthetic. Oh, and postpone these things until the next PlanCon project, and get the state to help pay. (PlanCon does not do athletic fields, nor auditorium improvements.)

Let us examine the contents of this water slide of notions, which flooded down the slippery slope of decision making and foreseeable, undesirable consequences.

Similar considerations were weighed, more judiciously, by the Town of Seymour, in Connecticut. I should mention here that in that state, the recreational athletic program, including competitive sports that we consider co-curricular school activities, is managed and funded through the municipality, governed by selectmen, not by the school system and “education dollars.”

A middle approach would be that used in New York State, where in public votes on a school budget (!), it is possible for a school board to present various components for voter approval or disapproval, and the sports package can be offered as an optional addition to the instructional program, which is the sine qua non.

Back to the Seymour decision to authorize its new bleachers and artificial turf. As the selectmen pointed out, artificial turf is a superior playing surface; the preponderance of information shows there is no adverse chemical exposure to players or public or the environment; modern turf for athletic fields (going back at least to 2007) has been highly durable, outlasting the interval between resoddings with natural turf. And talk about natural turf being better for our health, sheesh! Does anyone think that grass is kept green and weed-free without the application of chemical fertilizers and insecticides and weed killers? And where does the run-off go, if not into the Lillibridge?You want natural, you need to apply manure. (Not likely!)

A former head football coach in Seymour pointed out that “87 percent of the country uses artificial turf.” It was also mentioned that artificial turf can be used even after heavy rain, without the field becoming a soggy mess. The season for use is far longer. Maintenance is much less costly and labor intensive. Markings are durable and clear.

Such a stadium was expected to enable the community to host many area events. I remember Dee Buchanan pointing that out that advantage, in Facilities Committee and school board meetings, to no avail. I admit I didn’t see Port Allegany suddenly becoming a magnet for band festivals and playoffs because of artificial turf, but now I think that was plausible, especially with the new lights.

Those five Nays will echo through the years until another opportunity arrives to make a better decision. Meanwhile, we need to watch the board members for signs of similar failure to read the tide.

Peace.