A local lawn care professional told Sharpsville schools Superintendent Dr. Derry Stufft that the district's new football field does not need to be torn out and done over; it just needs maintenance.

Last year, the board awarded a $17,900 contract to Scott Lawn Yard of Sanborn, N.Y., to reseed the field but company representatives said the field would not be ready in time for football season unless it was sodded. Former school board President Robert Timmerman decided to have the field sodded and the cost rose to $43,000.

Residents recently complained that the field was not draining properly and a report from two lawn care professionals said the field needed to be regraded or intensely aerated.

Monday, Stufft told school directors he met earlier in the day with a representative from Kraynak Nursery and Garden Center, Hermitage, who said the field is in "pretty good shape" but needs to be aerated.

Stufft said the board should look into deep tining, which breaks the subsurface of the field; core aeration, which inserts hollow tubes in the ground and pulls out plugs of soil; and putting on a top dressing of fertilizer and seeds.

Deep tining would cost about $1,200, and the district may be able to borrow an aerator or get one from Kraynak's. The district typically budgets about $6,000 for field maintenance, Stufft said.

Stufft said the Kraynak representative will get back to him with prices for the tining and aeration.

Last fall, Tom Davies, greens superintendent at Oak Tree Country Club in Shenango Township, and John Hacker, park superintendent at Buhl Farm park in Hermitage, analyzed the field and suggested regrading or aerating it. Stufft said when Davies and Hacker saw the field it was extremely wet.