A diagram from Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space showing elements of artificial or synthetic turf.
Walnut shells, olive pit and coconut are a few of several options the Carson City Board of Supervisors will consider Thursday — not as part of any diet but as infill material for an artificial turf project at Centennial Park backed by $5 million in bond proceeds.
The meeting starts 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the boardroom of the community center, 851 E. William St.
Supervisors kicked off the turf project Sept. 5 by unanimously approving a $238,405 contract with Lloyd Consulting Group LLC to design conversion of the four upper softball fields at the park to artificial, or synthetic, turf. The motion specifically excluded crumb rubber (made from scrap tire material) as an infill option due to health and safety concerns raised by members of the public and by supervisors themselves.
The motion at the time also required city staff to bring the project back in the design phase, prior to bid, giving the board a chance to review what different infill materials would cost.
Other materials to be mulled over Thursday include tumbled wood, cork and encapsulated rubber, according to documents provided for the meeting: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3173576/Synthetic_Turf_infill_selection_presentation_2_.pdf
The Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department calculated available funding for the project to be roughly $5.84 million including the bond proceeds and $836,796 in Quality of Life funding. Supervisors authorized the bond issuance in early 2024. Per an agreement between the city and the Carson City Culture and Tourism Authority (CTA or Visit Carson City), the bonds are secured with a portion of room tax revenue, meaning visitors would initially pay for the new fields.
Both the natural and encapsulated rubber infill options, however, would take the project over available funding, documents for Thursday show. Natural infill material (such as walnut, olive, coconut, wood or cork) is estimated to cost $6.64 million for construction. Encapsulated rubber would cost just under $6 million.
Encapsulated rubber has a protective coat that keeps the rubber from contacting players and avoids leaching, according to parks officials. One downside is it’s hotter in the summer. Natural materials are cooler but move easier, such as with wind, decompose over time and may need herbicide.
Estimated maintenance costs are also cheaper for encapsulated rubber: $950,000 for a 10-year period versus $1.1 million over the same period for natural infill. The city put the 20-year maintenance costs of the products (including full turf replacement at 17-20 years) at $4.7 million for natural and $4.4 million for encapsulated rubber.
For the initial construction phase, the funding shortfall would be $161,818 for encapsulated rubber and $803,398 for a natural infill. Capital project funding for fiscal year 2026 could cover either, according to documents.
“The current design timeframe would allow for construction to begin in the fall of 2025 and be completed no later than May of 2026,” says a staff report.
In other action:
• Supervisors will convene as the Board of Health to hear regular reports as well as a report on the city’s Street Outreach Program for unsheltered individuals “since its inception on Feb. 21, 2024.”
The item is discussion only. The program is part of the city’s housing plan implemented in 2023 to help individuals through three phases — survive, stabilize and thrive — with the goal of independent living and stable housing.
“On Feb. 21, 2024, a contract was entered into with Karma Box to hire an individual to provide street outreach services in Carson City. Over the past year, the program has had some challenges in retaining staff to perform the services. In December 2024, Summer, a Carson City resident with homelessness experience, was hired by Karma Box and has been conducting services in Carson City since December 2024,” according to a staff report.
“The contract’s term was Feb. 21, 2024, through Oct. 31, 2024, for an amount not to exceed $49,750 funded from Carson City’s Indigent Accident Fund, the Emergency Solutions grant, and Carson City Opioid Funds,” according to the report. “Amendment #1 extended the contract’s term to Dec. 31, 2024. Amendment #2 extended the contract’s term to Jan. 31, 2025. A new contract was entered into for a term from Feb. 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025, for an amount not to exceed $35,000 using the same funding as the original contract, Carson City’s Indigent Accident Fund, the Emergency Solutions grant, and Carson City Opioid Funds.”
The program’s scope of work includes field assessments and data collection, cleanup of encampments with the Carson City Sheriff’s Office and connecting individuals to services, according to presentation materials for the agenda item: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3176210/Street_Outreach_Presentation_2024_Final_2.27.25v2.pdf
Data from February 2024 to January 2025 shows how long homeless individuals have been in Carson. Out of 125 responses, 40 percent said they had been in the city for years, 27 percent said months, 13 percent said weeks, 10 percent said days, and 10 percent said they were born and raised in Carson.