<p>Many have asked me why MV@Play, the project to improve and expand the high school athletic fields, is so important to me.</p>
Many people have asked me why MV@Play, the project to improve and expand the athletic fields at the high school, is so important to me.
The simple answer is that it matters, will make a difference and needs to get done now. The Island community deserves a place where all ages can play safe, healthy organized sports together. It’s time we commit ourselves to creating that place now.
Our high school track will no longer be certified for use by the state athletic association. Growth across all sports has stressed our fields to a breaking point. Youth soccer alone has grown to more than 400 kids and is still growing, not to mention the summer and adult leagues. While the many benefits of participating in organized sports has taken off, our space and upkeep has not. More importantly, I have come to understand that while this Island is a very special place, it also can paralyze itself into doing nothing. Sadly this can fracture great causes. Let me address what appears to be the singular fracturing issue of this project — the use of natural grass verses synthetic turf. The truth is we need both types of fields to achieve success. MV@Play is dedicated to providing a healthy recreational environment that withstands the demands of organized sports on the Island today and into the future.
Time is actually our worst enemy. We must complete phase one of the soon-to-be-condemned track and field this fall. The field inside the track will have organic infill with synthetic turf in order to meet the projected heavy volume of play, rain or shine. (Synthetic turf can handle 500 to 750 events per year, natural grass a maximum of 250 events per year). Other future fields in this project will include natural grass. Our biggest challenge is raising the $3.5 million necessary to get this entirely privately-funded project done on time so that the track does not shut down and new fields are created.
The time to band together is now. We are thrilled that the regional high school committee voted to support phase one, and organizations like MV United soccer have endorsed our project. The support across all organized sports underscores the benefit of working together to reach a common goal.
This is about creating fields of play for all ages that are healthy, safe and easily accessible for everyone. It could and should be a place where youth, parents, and adults can meet, mentor, grow and serve the community.
David Wallis
Oak Bluffs
The writer is president of MV@Play.
Comments
Thank you for the time/energy
Rebekah ThomsonThank you for the time/energy you are dedicating to this project. That said, it should go without saying that proposal of this magnitude (a 41-acre sports complex, permanently changing the experience of playing sports on Martha’s Vineyard for children ages 4 and up) requires far more consideration than this project has received. We are so grateful that at least one town so far has recognized this, and are optimistic that other towns will follow suit, if for no other reason than to teach our children that all major decisions, particularly those regarding developments of regional impact, need thorough review before implementation.
A few clarifying facts...
Grass fields with good drainage systems drain better than plastic fields. Grass fields can endure far more usage than the artificial turf industry would like us to believe. The more a plastic field is used, the quicker it races to the end of its useful life. And at that point, unlike grass, which can be rejuvenated, the plastic carpet must be shipped off island, somehow disposed of, and replaced at the cost of over one million dollars. The still unidentified plant-based infill that MV@Play is proposing to use cannot in good faith be referred to as organic. There is no regulation of such terms in the artificial turf industry, there is no way to verify the source of PBI or its contents, and the fact that it contains silica, a known lung hazard and recognized as a carcinogen by the EPA, should be enough to give everyone pause. MV United board members voted in support of improving fields. They were told MV@Play had no say in the actual playing surface.
Lastly, it is shocking that anyone use “healthy” and “safe” when describing plastic fields, which are treated with flame retardant chemicals, maintained with biocides, and all contain lead. I think it is time we stop taking parents/coaches’ opinions on safety and start placing our trust in the professionals. Just this week, the American Association of Pediatrics just called for more testing and tighter rules on lead exposure. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/20/482208272/pediatric… "It's unethical, of course, to purposefully poison kids with varying amounts of lead and then see what happens with their blood lead level and how that corresponds to developmental problems... If we want to actually do the right thing, we should prevent it from happening in the first place." We should be preventing exposures to lead, not introducing new sources. Dr. David Brown, Sc.D. notes, "Installing a synthetic turf field, you will increase lead exposure no matter what. It is the single largest source of lead in the town." I honestly can’t understand why school officials aren’t concerned about the safety of plastic fields when institutes including Mount Sinai and UMASS Lowell’s Toxics Use Reduction Institute, as well as the federal government, sure are.
Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center has called for a moratorium and states that even plant-derived infills require further research before being declared safe: “Insufficient data on chemical exposures due to limited studies that assess composition, off-gassing, leaching, and associated potential health effects.” http://media.wix.com/ugd/fd0a19_f5aa0824698341499b4228ebabf90cb5.pdf UMASS Lowell’s TURI now has a full section of its website dedicated to this issue. On their fact sheet, they state, "[plant-derived materials made of sand, cork, and coconut hulls] are likely to contain fewer hazardous chemicals than crumb rubber infill made from recycled tires, but the materials have not been well characterized or studied thoroughly.” And, “In sunny, warm weather, artificial turf can become much hotter than natural grass, raising concerns related to heat stress for athletes playing on the fields. Research indicates that all synthetic turf reaches higher temperatures than natural grass, regardless of the infill materials… Artificial turf fibers reached temperatures of 156 degrees under direct sunlight, while the crumb rubber infill reached 101 degrees.” http://www.turi.org/Our_Work/Home_Community/Artificial_Turf.
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