DIXON – A.C. Bowers Field, home of some Dixon High School sports and community events, is in rough shape.

So rough, that to guarantee it will be playable this fall, the school board needs to OK a fix more than twice the original estimate.

Kevin Schultz, the district’s buildings and grounds director, will propose two options tonight.

Option A: Rip out and replace the turf and the dilapidated sprinkler system, at a cost of nearly $150,000, as bid by Bush Sports Turf of Milan. That’s the guaranteed fix.

Option B? Allow primarily district staff to aerate, seed, fertilize, spray for weeds, water and mow, over and over for a few months, which will cost $50,000 to $60,000 and keep the surface playable, temporarily.

With Option B, “we wouldn’t be ripping anything out,” Schultz said. “We’d be Band-Aiding it for a better field condition. Option A totally fixes it. We know [Bush] can do it right, and be on schedule for the field to be played on in the fall. Option B is a roll-the-dice-type scenario.”

To pay for Option A, the district would use $42,000 in capital projects funds, $33,000 in Schultz’s facilities improvement fund, and the rest from the operations and maintenance fund.

Myriad factors account for Bush’s higher-than-the-district-estimated cost: There aren’t many big rolls of sod nearby, and it’s costly to bring it in from outside the area; the field needs more regrading and recrowning than originally expected; the sprinkler system costs more than anticipated; and Bush usually works in counties with a lower prevailing wage than Lee County, its representatives said.

Schultz told the board in February that the field was in disrepair – so much so that soccer games have been farmed out to Sauk Valley Community College, and events such as the Relay for Life cancer fundraiser was moved, as well.

After the annual Petunia City Brass Drum and Bugle Corps performance in August, the district received a complaint from Drum Corps International on the field’s condition.

“That was big,” Superintendent Margo Empen said. “We don’t want to put our own kids in danger, some of our kids who are competing for scholarships. We worry about them twisting an ankle and hurting a knee. Anyone else who steps on our field, we’re concerned for them, too.”

Also tonight:

Schultz will give members the final results of tests done on high school water fountains found to have higher-than-safe lead levels. Some of the fountains, which were shut off after the discovery, will be fixed with the help of a Rotary grant, others will be replaced using health/life safety funds.

Business Manager Dave Blackburn’s new policy of updating the board monthly on health care costs will continue.

He usually updates the board every other month, but February marks the fourth straight month the district’s costs have been significantly more than the past 2 years.

Even if the rest of the year’s costs were typical, the fiscal year 2017 costs will be over-budget – and Blackburn’s policy is to budget for worst-case scenarios. He budgeted for about $3.9 million, and the district’s costs already are at $2.9 million.

“It’s probably manageable,” he said. “Our bigger concern is when we’re going to get categorical payments [from the state].”

That money pays for special education, transportation and driver’s education, and Dixon is among local districts yet to see cent one.

As a result, it has borrowed from its transportation fund, reserves from which nearly are exhausted after starting the year with a $777,000 balance.

A source with the Illinois Association of School Boards told Blackburn that the district could receive the first of its four payments by the end of the month.

If it doesn’t arrive by the end of the year, the district will have to borrow from working cash, which has a balance of nearly $4 million.

“I like to tell people it’s not really a rainy-day fund,” Blackburn said. “It’s more of an internal bank you can borrow money from without interest.”

TO ATTEND

The Dixon school board meets at 6:30 p.m. today in the Reagan Middle School cafeteria, 620 Division St.

Go to dps170.org or call the school district's central office at 815-284-7722 for an agenda or more information.