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On June 16, 2005 the New England Park Association (NEPA) in cooperation with the New England Sports Turf Managers Association (NESTMA), sponsored the Northern New England NEPA Turf Show. The event was held in Portland, Maine at the Portland Expo, with sessions held at Fitzpatrick Stadium, Hadlock Baseball Field and Deering Oaks Park. Despite the cold and damp weather, over 100 delegates and 28 vendors made their way to the workshop to gather information, network, meet with colleagues and vendors and enjoy a nice lunch at the ballpark. Delegates traveled from as far as Nantucket, MA and Hartford, VT. The event also featured delegates from MIT and Boston College.
Marcia Noyes of Yarmouth Community Services, stated, “It was very exciting to work on this unique training opportunity with both the NEPA and NESTMA organizations collaborating efforts to provide a positive training experience for the participants in this region.” Matt Tobin of Pioneer Manufacturing Co. added, “We hope to be able to move forward in the future with other collaborative efforts.” The planning committee for this event was led by Noyes and featured Tobin, John Barry, Nick Caggiano, Cindy Hazelton, Rick Perruzzi, Joel St. Pierre, and Lance Tibbetts.
Inside the Portland Expo, vendors were on hand to display the latest in athletic, parks and recreation equipment. Some of the vendors included American Green, Bisco, Boston Company, Championship Turf, Franklin Paint, Gold Star Sod Farms, Hall Implement Co., Keystone Horticulture, Lesco, Musco Lighting, New England Organics, New England Recreation Group, Outdoor World of New England, Pioneer Manufacturing Co. (Gold Sponsor), Pure Barnyard, Qualite, Read Custom Soils, R.F. Morse & Sons, Inc., Sports Fields, Inc., Tuckahoe Turf Farms, Turflinks (Gold Sponsor), and Turf Product Corp (Gold Sponsor). Southern Area Recreation Technicians (SMART) was also a Gold Sponsor. NEPA and NESTMA would like to especially thank all of the Gold sponsors for their generosity and vendors for their support in making this first time event such a success.
Some of the sessions at the Turf Show included: multi-purpose grass field diagnosis, rehabilitation and post care; Baseball Field mound building, batter’s box maintenance, infields and edging; painting Superbowl logos on natural grass; painting, paint removal, disinfecting and grooming artificial turf; athletic field lighting design and maintenance; and AA Baseball League Q & A.
At the Multi-purpose Grass Field Diagnosis session, John Mascaro, President of Turf-Tec International presented a step by step guide to growing healthy athletic turf. John spoke about soil sample analysis, soil compaction analysis, aeration programs, infiltration reading, determining soil moisture percentages and mapping athletic fields for soil moisture. For more information on the topics discussed in John Mascaro’s session, visit the Turf-Tec International web site at www.turf-tec.com. Lance Tibbetts of Windham High School and June Boston of the Boston Company held a session on Multi-purpose field rehabilitation. Their session included the following topics: budget constraints, seed vs. sod, equipment to be used, proper aeration techniques, overseeding, top dressing fertility need for renovations, and how to drag, seed and top dress. For more information on this session and the other sessions, contact a member of the planning committee to be directed to the session facilitators. |
