Decatur Square is a popular place, which is a great thing in almost all respects.

But not where growing grass is concerned. For many years the city has struggled to get grass to grow to the east of the Bandstand, where foot traffic is the most frequent.

Back in 2011, the city budgeted a lot of money to replace the drainage and irrigation system on the Square in an effort to make grass and shoes live in greater harmony with one another.  Unfortunately, the new grass wasn’t much better than the old grass at withstanding the feet of our many residents and festival-goes.

So now it seems like the City is taking another go at it.  On the agenda for tonight’s Commission meeting…

The purpose of this memorandum is to recommend establishment of a project budget of $36,000 and approval of a contract in the amount of $32,792.51 with Plants Creative Landscape for the installation of a new porous underlayment system, new sod and landscape areas in the two lawn areas located east of the Bandstand. This work is designed to reduce the impact of foot traffic in this area. The recommended system, GrassPave2, is a porous underlayment that allows grass to grow up through it while protecting the grass roots from being crushed by foot traffic. The result is a comfortable, grassy lawn that is able to withstand large public gatherings and recover quickly. This system has been successfully used by other municipalities for similar park and outdoor event installations. It also is used by churches and other institutions to provide grassed parking areas.

Photo courtesy of Al