The district believes the turf installed on the football field in 2005 is defective and wants the company that manufactured the surface, Challenger Industries of Georgia, to replace it.
Belton ISD attorney Angela Tekell said an eight-year warranty was part of the terms of a contract the district signed before the project got under way. The district wants the field replaced and for the companies named in the suit to cover attorney fees.
The other businesses named are A.R.M.S. Building and Maintenance, which installed the turf, and Sports Engineering Technology, a Tarrant County company that acted as a consultant to the district. Sports Engineering advised the district on selecting the contractor to install the surface and did the final inspection after construction was complete.
Ms. Tekell said coaches alerted administrators to concerns about the field earlier this year. An inspection found nearly 30 bald spots or defective tuft binds on the field.
“The turf was almost completely gone in those areas,” Ms. Tekell said. “There were some spots as small as an inch in diameter and others as large as 3˝ inches in diameter.”
The district invited Sports Engineering to inspect the surface and Ms. Tekell said the company’s own representatives told the district that the turf was “defective or nonconforming.”
Other experts have independently confirmed that initial finding, Ms. Tekell said.
Rodney Southern, the district’s athletic director and football coach, said the field would be safe to play on this year.
Two weeks ago about $10,000 in repair work was done on the bald regions and a loose seam, Ms. Tekell said.
“The bald spots were cut out and replaced,” Ms. Tekell said. “We don’t know yet if those were the only bald spots or if we will continue to discover more, but we fear there may be more in the future.”
The district believes appropriate testing of the material before Challenger shipping it or before A.R.M.S. installing it would have shown the turf to be defective, according to the suit.
Ms. Tekell said the district tried to work with the companies to find an administrative solution to the issue but failed.
“It was real important to us to exhaust all avenues before filing suit,” she said.
A phone message left with Steve White, president of Challenger Industries, was not returned by late Tuesday.
Including consulting fees, the district paid $670,750 for the turf. Although the warranty was for eight years, the Telegram reported when it was purchased that the district expected the turf to last 12 years.
The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team also uses the field for games and agreed to pay $350,000 of the total cost over a 10-year span.
UMHB did not join Belton ISD in the suit.
