Decatur’s commission recently approved installing 9500 square feet of artificial turf west of the bandstand behind the historic DeKalb County Courthouse. The anticipated cost is $68,210 and work should begin sometime in April. Assistant City Manager David Junger said he isn’t sure when the project will finish, though it should wrap before May 25 Memorial Day.
Last September the city installed 5300 square feet of turf on the bandstand’s east side. The current project would complete the courthouse lawn portion falling under the city’s jurisdiction.
Junger said the artificial turf should last longer than 10 years.
The bandstand and surrounding lawn has been ground zero for thousands of festivalgoers, restaurant patrons, picnickers and itinerant school kids for a quarter century or more. Over that duration maintaining natural turf has proven impossible. As recently as May 2012 the city spent $375,000 installing new gravel, drain lines, an irrigation system and new soil, only to see within a couple years the grass turning to a permanent brown.
As Junger pointed out last year, the primary problem is that the dirt won’t compact since it’s only about 18 inches above the MARTA tunnel, which opened in 1979.
Artificial turf, he points out, requires virtually no maintenance, watering, mowing, use of fertilizers and sustains a high tolerance to heavy foot traffic.
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