$125,000 Donation Clears Path For Artificial Turf At Solon Field

SOLON, OH — A donation of $125,000 will allow Solon to add artificial turf to Varsity Field at the Community Park. The city will fund the remainder of the project's cost.

Solon City Council approved the acceptance of the donation recently. The money was given to the Solon Foundation by Councilman William Russo and his wife Mary.

“My wife and I are happy that we are in a position to make this donation to give back to the community,” said Russo. “Barry Chesler and Jim Bialosky, past presidents of the Solon Chamber of Commerce reinforced in me that it was important to represent the organization you were involved with and do things to benefit others and not yourself, so in following their teachings, I felt it was important to step up and make this donation to make this project a reality before Brad Cisar retires from coaching.”

Cisar is Solon High School's assistant varsity baseball coach. He has regularly petitioned and lobbied for the addition of artificial turf at the field, but the cost of the project had proved prohibitive until Russo's donation.

Eventually, Solon's Parks and Recreation Department would like to install turf on fields 1-5 at Community Park. The addition of turf would allow for baseball, flag footabll, lacrosse, soccer and softball to be played at the fields with minimal maintenance. Artificial turf would also prevent games being cancelled due to poor field conditions.

Turf will also let grounds crews do more work throughout Community Park and at other locations in Solon.

Construction on the project will start October 1, 2019 and should be completed before the end of the year, the city said. That means the newly turfed field will be ready for spring baseball in 2020.

“I am excited that we continue as a city to explore and implement ideas and programs that improve the experiences of our citizens,” said Don Holub, director of Parks and Recreation for Solon. “I look forward to seeing our kids playing on a first-class field!”