After two failed attempts to get grass to seed at the new sports complex, Lisbon is going to utilize Jordan’s Lawn care for the project.
Lisbon city administrator Brandon Siggins explained that the first course of seeding happened roughly a week outside the recommended seeding window, and didn’t get a lot of grass to properly establish.
Schmitt Construction, the contractor on the project, met with Siggins and YTT at the project in May and applied a second seeding on the south portion of the sports complex.
Lisbon parks and recreation director Drayton Kamberling has religiously watered the grass areas at the sports complex amid this drought.
“We have a lot of weeds that have grown, especially on the south portion of the lawn, but not a lot of grass,” Siggins said. “The weeds have starved out a lot of the moisture in the ground, and the grass we have there is just not as full as we want.”
Schmitt Construction sent a bill for $12,000 for the seeding and matting, but with such little growth, Siggins is going to approach them about paying for the matting and work they did, but not the seeding.
Siggins was asking the council to accept the fields as they are from Schmitt so he can pursue options with other companies to aerate, spray the weeds in the field and attempt a third application for seeding the park so the complex could be usable by late spring or early fall 2024.
Siggins said that the application of a broad chemical to kill the weeds would be beneficial and points to the work Jordan’s did in Lisbon City Park in 2022.
“We had a bad case of creeping Charlie in the park, and they hit that with chemicals and treatments, and that’s some of the nicest grass we have, especially in a year of drought like this,” Siggins said.
Siggins worries that if the city were to continue working with Schmidt, the process could take years to establish into a usable field for the city, where switching to a different contractor may get results sooner.
“It’s a very level surface and looks great from that perspective, we’re just trying to get grass to grow so we can use this as a sports field,” Siggins said.
Mayor Doug O’Connor said he would be amenable to that approach if an agreement can be reached with Schmitt Construction.
Siggins will bring bids for the project back to council in October for approval of an application to be completed during the seeding window this fall.
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About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.