Holy Rosary High School (HRHS) officially broke ground on a new $2.1 million field project on June 10. Work on the project, however, has been underway for nearly a month.
“This is a dream come true for our school division, for our school and for the community,” said Vince Orieux, head coach of the HRHS Raiders football team. “We couldn’t do it without the community’s support.”
Read more: HRHS announces multi-million dollar FieldTurf project
Krystal Monteith, director at Spear Maintenance Ltd., announced crews are nearly finished excavating the site.
Christian Apostolovski Meridian Source
“We’re getting very close to getting done the excavation, hopefully next week,” said Monteith. “The next step will be digging in the sub-drainage system that Scott’s designed.”
Scott Simons, manager of the municipal division at Bar Engineering, explained the system.
“The interesting thing with this field turf is it’s permeable. All the rainwater actually infiltrates through the field turf into the gravel,” he said, adding the field will be completely flat.
“It’ll allow the drainage to go into the sub-grade itself. The new piping is going to tie into it below grade.”
Local industry stepped up to help fund the work. Garnet Zarowny, operations superintendent for the field’s title sponsor, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, said the company invests in communities where staff live and work.
“This was important for us to donate,” he said. “I’ve got grandkids that are two and three years old and they’ll be using this field for many, many years to come.”
The turf will display logos of businesses and organizations that sponsored the field.
“They’ll be visible from anywhere in the field,” said Monteith. “We’re in the last stages of the design.”
Orieux said the full project cost will cost about $2.1 million.
“The turf itself, with the logos, is around $800,000,” he said. “There won’t be anything left over. Maybe a little bit of pizza.”
The school hopes to host a grand opening on Oct. 3.
“If we can’t find an opponent, our junior team would be a great opening act,” he said, noting a backup plan.
“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is our little Raiders flag football (game) for kids in Grade 2, 3 and 4.”
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