THS baseball headed to Southdown Elementary

The Terrebonne Tiger baseball team should play on its own field next season after the Terrebonne School Board approved a contract to install artifi cial turf and lights at Southdown Elementary.

The school board approved a contract with Baton Rouge-based GeoSurfaces, which was acquired through The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS), a purchasing cooperative of school districts nationwide.

The contract only needs to be approved by TIPS for Geo Surfaces to begin construction, which would be 10 days from then, company chief executive officer Charles Dawson said.

The baseball field is adjacent to Southdown Elementary.

Dawson said the installation of the artificial turf and lighting system will take about 75 days, weather permitting.

Terrebonne school superintendent Philip Martin said only the infield diamond will be

artificial turf; the outfield will be grass.

The stadium provides restroom facilities and a concession stand, an amenity that was lacking at the old baseball field, Martin said.

The school board has been seeking a contractor to build the field for the last year. Martin described the last prices quoted for the work as being “astronomically high.”

Submitted bids were upward of $1 million, Martin said. The first time the job was advertised, board members did not go through the TIPS purchasing cooperative.

“Had I known the bids that came back would’ve been $1.2 million, I probably would’ve gone through TIPS the first time,” Martin said. The bid quoted by Geo-Surfaces is $631,870 for the turf and lighting.

Lights will be purchased from Qualite Sports Lighting, a company specializing in readying fields for sports play. It installed the lighting at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the site for Super Bowl XLII between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.