Warrenton High School may soon be getting a state-of-the-art artificial turf football field that will significantly broaden its usage. Thanks to some financial maneuvering from administrators, the district's investment advisers proposed the project at the March school board meeting last week. The school plans to refinance its existing debt to take advantage of lower interest rates and is proposing that savings be plowed into the cost of installing and purchasing artificial turf. A decision to proceed with artificial turf would address the field's litany of serious problems caused by challenging soil conditions, grass-growing and poor drainage that all add up to a mess at practice and game time, said Superintendent Dr. John Long. Long told board members at their February meeting that any solution - whether soil remediation, planting and maintaining a different more indigenous grass, new drainage configuration or artificial turf - will require a significant investment. Even at that, he cautioned that none of the fixes except artificial turf would be guaranteed to solve the problems, even in the short term. The school has been investigating turf or "synthetic grass" along with other options for some time and last week issued a request for turf bids to be submitted by April 1. Bids will be reviewed during a special April 1 school board meeting. If approved, construction of the new field should begin in late May. Terms of the contract call for completion of the turf by Aug. 6 with stiff penalties for delays, district officials said. The district also will require an eight-year warranty on the project. Long passed around a sample of the turf to board members and those attending last week's meeting, noting that the particular sample was similar to one used by the St. Louis Rams at their practice facility. The financial case for artificial turf, Long said, is strong due to the low maintenance nature of artificial turf and the significantly expanded opportunities for use of the new field. "Right now, we spend more than $25,000 a year to maintain a field that's used 10 times a year for football," Long said. "The cost to fix the field through soil remediation, new grass and drainage would be an additional $40,000. Turf will enable us to expand usage of the field by 25 times." The school estimates that the turf could cost between $700,000 and $750,000, but most of the cost would be covered through savings achieved as the school district refinances its debt from earlier capital projects covering building of the high school and renovation of Black Hawk Middle School and Daniel Boone Elementary. In addition to football, the more durable field would allow use by soccer (practice and games), band, physical education classes, Little League football and high school graduation, along with other uses. Accommodating graduation has been a source of much study, district officials said, as the size of next year's class and guests exceeds capacity seating in the gymnasium. The benefits of installing turf will help parking and traffic flow around the high school, administrators said, since the band currently has to practice on the parking lot, which creates gridlock at key times. Making the purchase of artificial turf at this time is particularly enticing due to the significant savings the school will achieve through refinancing its $9.8 million debt on major capital projects to take advantage of lower interest rates. If approved by the board, these savings could be redirected toward the turf project to be financed over a period of time, enabling the district's payment and tax rate to stay the same. Several refinancing scenarios are being considered by the board - one with a savings as high as $590,000 to apply to the field - and will be voted on at the April 1 meeting. "The savings from the refinancing must be applied to another capital project," said Board President Dale Schowe, explaining why the funding would not be used in the classroom and for other non-facilities purposes. "We feel good about this potential solution, since it will mean significantly more students will be able to take advantage of the field than has been the case up to this point," he added.