The Burrell School District administration has recommended artificial turf rather than natural grass for the Buccaneers Stadium renovations.

The board will cast a final vote to award the project, choosing from three contract bids, at their March 17 meeting.

The administration and the project’s architects, HHSDR Architects/Engineers of Sharon, reviewed the bids and presented their recommendation Tuesday night for artificial turf.

That’s a reversal from the board’s earlier decision last year to go with natural grass.

The recommendations for the artificial surface and other renovations would total about $1.8 million, according to Superintendent Shannon Wagner.

A combination of hearing from parents, students, and the community along with more research led to the administration to go with the artificial turf, Wagner said.

While preliminary estimates showed artificial turf cost substantially more than natural sod to install, that isn’t the case over a decade when considering maintenance costs. In the long run artificial turf costs less than grass, Wagner said.

About $2.75 million is available to pay for the project. It comes from a combination of $933,000 from refinancing a district bond and a capital fund balance of about $1.8 million, according Jennifer Callahan, the district’s business administrator.

On Tuesday, Wagner presented the administration’s recommendation for a base bid to fix the drainage problems on the field and the track, along with a dozen alternate projects including installing an artificial turf field.

“This past fall, we went out to bid to secure more concrete numbers to make a more well-informed decision,” she told the board Tuesday night.

Four contractors bid on the project although one withdrew when he made a mistake in his bid, according to Wagner.

A standing-room only crowd packed Tuesday night’s board meeting with residents, parents and a number of student-athletes. A similar crowd turned out last year to ask the school board to re-consider going with artificial rather than natural turf.

One student Ryan Wurzer, 17, a soccer player added that as a player he and others are used to playing on turf fields and took issue with the natural grass field that gets wet and muddy.

“When it’s cold, it freezes up and with the holes in the field you could break your ankle,” he said.

Another student, Gavynn Thompson, 16, a Burrell football player added about the bad condition of the field: “Every time I went down last year I felt like I was going to tear an ACL.”

The administration recommends not including the school’s name or other lettering in the end zones to save money. One of the district’s soccer coaches, Brandon Daughtry, also advised against it because the coloring can pull away from the stitching of the artificial turf, making play difficult.

Noting the team’s Buccaneers name, Thompson suggested that a ship facade or image should be used for the student section of the stadium. The school board found his suggestions interesting.

The project should be complete by late August.