Topsail pitch to get earlier than expected turf replacement

By Craig Westcott

CBS councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett is characterizing the emergency replacement of the turf at Topsail Soccer Pitch this fall as a case of necessary short term pain for long term gain.

The chairman of council’s recreation committee is also hopeful the Town will find funding to defray much of the $818,000 cost.

News of the emergency turf replacement came at Tuesday’s public council meeting and was a late addition to the agenda.

“I want to let residents become aware that ultimately the pitch at the soccer field needs to be repaired and this is something that we as council have been navigating for some time,” Barrett said. “And the timing of it is unfortunate because we did have this reviewed and inspected in a recent time and we were notified that our turf would be appropriate for use for another several years. But in recent time we have had another review completed by Soccer Canada ahead of the (2025) Canada Games and they informed us that the pitch is not appropriate for competitive use on a national stage, not even just for the Canada games, but it’s deteriorated beyond a point that they believe soccer can be played on that competitively. So, they recommended that that be replaced now.”

Barrett said council is aware of the demand on the pitch, with the CBS Soccer Association being the largest soccer club in the province.

“Maintaining the quality of this asset is essential for a community,” Barrett said. “We know so many people who use it, we host so many events on it, including the forthcoming Canada Games. We believe at this point in time it’s very much an excellent opportunity for us to do so, because the turf in fact needs to be replaced anyway and doing so at this time allows us to tap into some (funding) opportunities leading up to the Canada Games, (with) some of those organizations involved with that, and certainly other partners have allowed us to move forward with this motion this evening, and so we’re very excited about that and excited that we can host the Canada Games next year.”

Barrett singled out Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse for her role in leading the Town’s effort to secure funding from other levels of government and other groups to help cover the cost of the work. Gosse stepped forward into that role as Mayor Darrin Bent had to step back from involvement as he is employed as the general manager of the CBS Soccer Association. Bent declared himself in a conflict of interest prior to Barrett introducing the agenda item and excluded himself from the discussion and vote.

Barrett moved to award the contract to remove and replace the artificial turf to Field Turf USA Inc., for a maximum cost of $817,694 plus taxes.
The motion passed unanimously.

In an interview after the meeting, Barrett said the Town is still trying to secure money from the federal government to cover some of the cost. The CBS Soccer Association, meanwhile, has agreed to contribute $15,000 a year over 15 years for a total of $225,000. The provincial government is providing $150,000, he added.
“And so that’s what we have matched right now,” Barrett said.

The work is scheduled to start in September and is expected to last about three weeks. The company doing the work will be in Newfoundland already at that time, working on another field.

“There is fall programming by the soccer association at that pitch and so we will be working with the CBS Soccer Association to try to alleviate any of the burden that might have on some of the programs that they offer,” Barrett said.

The earlier review of the pitch’s condition was done in 2022 by a company called Turf Master based in Nova Scotia. At that point, the Town was told the turf was good for another four or five years, Barrett said. Last October, when it was inspected by Soccer Canada, that organization said it wasn’t suitable for competitive play.

“So, at that point we started considering what that would look like,” Barrett said. “We needed to update the turf anyway, whether the Canada Games would be here or not, and so we’re a bit fortunate that there were opportunities for funding that we could tap into, because the Canada Games are coming.”

The refurbished Topsail Pitch, which was built on top of a former grass pitch and softball field, saw artificial turf added in 2010.