Moving dirt: Relocation of athletic complex soil could save district time, money

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Any Iowa farmer might tell you that dirt can be a valuable commodity.

Ask Jerry Mitchell, and he might agree.

The dirt that is currently being removed at the future site of the Charles City School District’s new athletic complex is being relocated, and could end up saving the district tens of thousands of dollars. It could also save the district a fair amount of work at the old College Grounds site at 1765 Clark Street.

“It all just worked out — it happened a lot quicker than we thought, and for a lot less money,” said Mitchell, who is the school district’s grounds and transportation director.

The former bus barn and transportation office are located at the College Grounds location, and with the a new transportation center up and running, it is anticipated those buildings will eventually be torn down. The rest of the location is an open green lot, encompassed by trees at its perimeter. The spot contains a football field surrounded by a cinder track and a soccer field area. The fields are frequently utilized by the YMCA for soccer, flag football and other recreation, and also by the general public for pick-up games.

At a recent joint meeting with representatives from the school district, the city and the YMCA, the future of the location was discussed. Although no official plans were made, it was agreed that the fields needed to be re-crowned so they could be played on all the time.

“The football field is especially low,” Mitchell said. “When it rains, a lot of the water sits in the northwest corner for a long time.”

The district hired a firm to survey the grounds about three months ago, and high points and low points were identified, but little more was done.

Then began the construction of the new athletic complex. Tons of dirt, it turns out, will need to be removed from the site of where the baseball field will be, and much of that dirt can be brought over to the College Grounds area, at no cost to the district. Baker Concrete and Excavating, the company removing the dirt, will move it, and also donated their time and labor to scrape off the topsoil at the College Grounds.

“That way we can proceed with getting the south side of the college grounds crowned now, and as we get it done and get it seeded and back to reusable space, then we can crown the existing football field,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the projected cost of crowning the field “if the school had to purchase and bring in new soil and hire someone to do it” was between $30,000 and $40,000.

“This is a project that we’re going to get done for very minimal cost now,” he said. “It saves us a lot of money, and it starts a project earlier than what we thought we could.”

Mitchell said about half the baseball field dirt will go to the new transportation complex to create a larger area for a building planned to go up in the next three-to-five years there. About one-quarter of the direct will go to level out what is now the football practice field — which is where the softball field will be. The rest of the dirt will go to the College Grounds.

Mitchell expects to get the dirt down there in the next two or three weeks.

“It’ll get down here, and we’re hoping to get it all crowned and seeded this fall so it’s ready to go, hopefully, for the spring,” he said.

Mitchell said the school district has been having discussions with the city and the YMCA to do some joint things there. One of the ideas is to make the area into a public park.

“If you look at a map of where all the parks are in the city, there really are none on this side of town,” he said. “We’re putting everything out there — maybe we can put a little playground in the corner, maybe we can put in a picnic area. The sky is the limit.”

Mitchell said that between the school district, the city and the YMCA, something nice can be done for the community.

“There’s not a lot of green space in this part of town,” he said. “We’re trying to create some green space here.”