ROGER LALONDE / Staff

The Lely football field is getting a new artificial turf, complete with special draining. It will be ready for the fall football season.

ROGER LALONDE / Staff

Workmen receive a load of fill as they prepare the Lely football field area for the laying of an artificial turf.

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The Lely football field lays bare, stripped to below ground about two feet.

Some time soon a fill mixture of crushed rock, rubber and sand will be put down before the new synthetic turf is laid.

The field will be completed by Aug. 1, according to Russell Clukey, Collier County Schools executive director of support services and project manager for the three football fields being done at once.

Lely, Naples and Immokalee will have new fields for the fall season, while Golden Gate, Gulf Coast and Palmetto Ridge are on the project board for 2009.

Baron Collier’s field was done in 2007, getting the same Field Turf system.

Playing it safe, Lely’s spring game at home was moved to Clearwater-Countryside. Naples will play at Clewiston on May 24 and Immokalee will host Miami-Bay Point, but play at Palmetto Ridge.

Lely also rescheduled its regular-season home game on Aug. 30, traveling to Tampa-Catholic.

“We asked the schools to move the games because we wanted to make sure the fields would be ready,” Clukey said. “It was just easier to do it up front, rather than waiting until a week before the games and try to make changes (if necessary),” he said.

“The field will be environmentally safe and the turf is supposed to be the safest around. It also has a higher rating for softness than a regular football field.”

Cost for the three fields is $2.7 million. The fields are being paid for with capital dollars. Once in, operational funds will be used to maintain them.

“We expect that within 10 years, due to the lower cost of maintenance, we will be at break-even for the cost of the fields,” Clukey said.