Fairhaven High School May Be Getting a New Turf Field

One benefit to the pandemic is that the lack of high school sports on the SouthCoast has given some of the suffering, overused playing fields a couple of seasons to recover. Even with the rest, however, once high school sports resume, the fields will return to being continually used, causing them to wear down again.

This has caused multiple communities in the area to look into replacing their grass fields with turf.

Fairhaven High School has an opportunity to become the SouthCoast's latest school to receive a new turf playing surface. According to a post on the school's alumni association Facebook page, Fairhaven's Special Town Meeting will be voting on the article on Tuesday night, October 20th at the Hastings Middle School auditorium.

The main field next to the high school is currently a grass field that is used for Fairhaven High School football only. The field had previously been the home field for high school soccer, field hockey and lacrosse, and would host Fairhaven Pop Warner games on the weekends. Excessive use caused the field to wear down.

The new turf field would be designed for use by multiple sports teams.

This $1.4 million project would be funded by a contribution of $200,000 from the Fairhaven Public Schools and the remaining $1.2 million raised as a capital project by the Town of Fairhaven. — Fairhaven High Alumni Association

The Association pledges to buy an upgraded scoreboard for the new field if the turf project is approved and implemented.

There is no specific mention of the vote for the turf in the official warrant.

Last summer, Old Rochester Regional High School came close to scoring a multi-million dollar turf improvement complete with upgrades for the drama club in the school's performance center. The initiative passed in Mattapoisett and Marion but failed in the final vote in Rochester.