Turf Field Construction to Kick Off at High School

A year-and-a-half after voters rejected a referendum for the school district to fund the project, Montville Township High School will soon have an artificial turf field thanks to a donation from a local company.

Montville Township Public Schools Business Administrator Jim Tevis said contractors will be meeting within a few weeks to officially kick off construction on the project. While Tevis did not have an exact timeline for when the turf field would be complete, as much of the work depends on the weather, he said the project is moving ahead. 

"We'd love to see it done by the end of the school year," he said.

The turf field is being made possible through a donation from Applied Landscape Technologies, a Montville-based landscaping company. Applied purchased naming rights to the high school field after the board of education voted to approve the initiative in hopes it would help support the turf project.

Tevis said he was unsure how much the artificial turf field would cost.

"All we care about is they're building us a turf field to our specifications," he said.

As part of the naming rights, Applied will have the company name painted on medallions on the sidelines of non-playing portions of the field, Tevis said. During the construction kickoff meetings, Tevis said it will also be discussed whether the field will be lined for all sports.

"We're not quite that far ahead yet. We just want to finish the design," he said.

School board President Dr. Karen Cortellino said the board is excited to see the project moving ahead.

"The children of the district needed this field and we were happy to find a way to creatively achieve this goal at no cost to the taxpayer," she said. "We thank the contributors who are making this project possible."

A representative from Montville Turf the Valley, the non-profit organization that sought to raise money to turf the field, was not available for comment.