There’s a method to that mountain of dirt

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

That dirt mountain has a purpose.

Eventually it will be green space containing two beautiful football/soccer fields, and possibly more. That’s the plan, anyway.

The dirt that has been removed from the future site of the Charles City School District’s new athletic complex has been relocated to the old College Grounds site at 1765 Clark Street. When construction began at the athletic complex, tons of dirt needed to be removed from the site of the baseball field, and much of that dirt was brought over to the College Grounds area, at no cost to the school district.

Baker Concrete and Excavating moved the dirt and also donated its crews’ time and labor to scrape off the topsoil at the College Grounds.

The city of Charles city will soon take some of the dirt to the new wastewater facility site.

“We had an abundance of extra dirt, and we are using that dirt to crown the football fields,” said Charles City Superintendent of Schools Mike Fisher. “We found out we could use all the dirt if we wanted to — but on the other hand, we didn’t have to.”

Fisher said the city approached him about the possibility of using some of that dirt at the wastewater facility site.

“At first we said no, but then we reconfigured and realized they could make some adjustments and make that happen.” Fisher said. “We want to be a good community partner and help save the taxpayers some money — that’s money the city doesn’t have to find for extra dirt — we wanted to help out.”

In the next couple of weeks, Fisher said, the city will likely start taking some of that dirt down to the plant. The remaining dirt will be more than enough to crown the fields at the College Grounds.

“We’re going to have to world class football/soccer and band practice fields up there,” Fisher said. “We’ll have a great crown, good grass, good drainage — it will be really solid.”

Although Fisher said it’s all speculation at this point, there are discussions between the school district and the city’s parks and recreation department of eventually making the area “one of the crown jewels of our town.”

“Down the road, we have some dreams of maybe scoreboards, concessions and restrooms,” Fisher said. “We want a community partnership so we can have a really nice shared space, a great public green space.”

One building has already been removed at the site, so the football field can be a full 100-yard field. Fisher said the discussion is all part of a 5-10 year plan for the area, which is owned by the school district.