Group Raising Funds For Artificial Turf At CHS

A group of Cookeville residents have launched a fundraising effort for bringing an artificial turf field to Cookeville High School.

Caylor Taylor represents a group of soccer, lacrosse, and football parents leading the effort. She said the campaign would be similar to what Rutherford County did and several other schools.

“Which is to ask for monetary donations and really classify them according to amount,” Taylor said. “The top amount that we have called out is $100,000, and then we go all the way down to a platform where if someone wants to give $25 they can do that.”

The group will also offer advertisement spots on the field. Taylor said “soft discussions” have already begun with some potential businesses.

“I think its fair to say that at this point, of the soft discussions that we’ve had, we conservatively believe that we are a third of the way there,” Taylor said. “Our goal is to play on it in August, so we have a very aggressive timeline.”

Taylor said the group would ask for 50-percent of the money in year one, 25-percent in year two, and the remaining 25-percent in year three.

The potential field would serve football, lacrosse, soccer, and band members. Taylor said the project would also provide the school system with an opportunity to make improvements to the track at CHS.

“After talking to the cross country and track teams and several other school districts, we understand that there are synergies,” Taylor said. “Anytime that you tear up a football field to replace it with turf, that’s a really good time to do the track because you avoid the risk of doing damage to anything. I say that, because all those groups have committed to help us fund raise.”

The board of education has allowed the group to continue moving forward with raising funds for the field. Taylor said the group will provide the board with a formal report about the project during next month’s meeting.