By Michael Butler

The new turf project at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium was scheduled to begin this week. Instead the grass lies under a blanket of snow.

New prescription grass will be laid on the game field and practice field for a cost of approximately $2.3 million with funding provided by an Elmore County lodging tax.

One contractor is handling all the turf work for athletic facility upgrades in Elmore County.

“They’re trying to finish up the baseball fields at Holtville and Eclectic,” Tallassee City Schools Superintendent Dr. Brock Nolin said. “They have two of their crews working at two different sites. The plan is once they complete those two jobs they’ll roll everyone over here.”

Nolin said crews will cut and grade the fields before laying the artificial turf.

“It’s supposed to be 90 days, but with inclement weather cycles that puts them behind.”

Soccer season is scheduled to begin on Feb. 7, but THS head coach Matthew Tarpley scheduled all road games for the first two months of the season.

The team will move practices to the recreational soccer and softball fields in East Tallassee. If the turfing is not finished by April, Tarpley will designate a nearby facility for home matches.

“We’ve got a contract with the City of Wetumpka,” Tarpley said. “It’s a new stadium with a new surface. It just happens to be 24 minutes away.”

Nolin added that plans to move forward with a new track at the elementary school are on hold.

“We had one bidder,” he said. “It was a million dollars over budget. The good news is I can look at GC’s (General Contractors) myself. About $1.4 million is allocated.”