Mayor: Lawrence High Football Field, Trashed During Festival, Will Be Ready For Thanksgiving Game
LAWRENCE (CBS) -- A month after the Lawrence High football field was trashed during a Brazilian festival, the town's mayor said work on the new field is nearing completion.
Mayor Dan Rivera told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz that the field would be ready for the Thanksgiving Day football game.
#Lawrence Mayor @danrivera01843: The work on the Veterans Memorial field should be done in time for the Thanksgiving Day football game.
— Bernice Freedman (@BerniceNews) November 2, 2016
Lawrence High School's Veterans Memorial Stadium hosted that festival the first weekend of October, and school officials arrived the following Monday morning to find the field covered in trash, beer cans, and rotting food, and smelling of alcohol.
Whoever rented the field from city this weekend and trashed it....you should be ashamed of yourselves. #kidsarewatching pic.twitter.com/oMJoixpGv8
— Jeffrey C. Riley (@JeffreyCRiley) October 3, 2016
Shards of glass were buried in the artificial turf, leaving the field unusable and beyond repair.
Last month, Rivera asked to borrow $875,000 from the Lawrence City Council to pay for the repairs needed for the field--but Rivera said Wednesday that the repairs cost $388,000, and were fully covered by the city's insurance.