Stadium turf paid for by city insurance company

Nov. 02--Editor's note: Due to a reporter's error, an earlier version of this story contained incorrect information regarding the coverage of the cost of the field replacement. The story has been corrected.

LAWRENCE -- Travelers Insurance has given the city $325,000 to replace the artificial turf at Veterans Memorial Stadium that was ruined during a concert last month, leaving a $63,000 balance that Mayor Daniel Rivera said he is expecting the company also will pay.

Still unsettled is what Travelers will pay to repair the track and other damage done to the stadium during the Oct. 2. concert, Rivera said.

"Its a big deal because the insurance companies are involved and making sure that at the end of the day, the companies pay and the city of Lawrence does not," Rivera told the City Council Tuesday night. "Instead of us going after Floripa Productions, our insurance company is going to go after them and anyone and everyone who had anything to do with this."

Floripa Productions is the Malden company that staged the concert and cultural festival on Oct. 2, which drew 9,000 people -- 1,000 more than the stadium's capacity -- and left the field covered in garbage and glass shards from broken liquor bottles. The shards were embedded in the turf and rendered it useless.

Rivera's announcement that Travelers will pay most of the cost of replacing the field was a double dose of good news for the city. On Friday, city Purchasing Agent Rita Brousseau awarded the contract to replace the field to NET Sports Group of Saco, Maine, whose $388,000 bid was $100,000 less than the architect who designed the new field told the city to expect.

The contract calls for NET to have the new field in place by Nov. 22, in time to allow Vets Stadium to host the traditional Thanksgiving Day rivalry between Central Catholic and Lawrence High schools.

City Councilors have been sharply critical of the administration's failure to take steps needed to protect the stadium during the concert, but there were more back-slaps than barbs during the meeting with Rivera Tuesday night.

"We dealt with our anger before and we may again tomorrow night," said Councilor Marc Laplante, referring to another meeting the council has scheduled on Wednesday with Rivera and his top aides to discuss what went wrong. "But this is a major milestone. Government identified a problem and went to work to solve the problem. We're going to get this deal done quickly so that Lawrence High School seniors play football on their home field before they graduate."

The council voted 7-0 to allow Rivera to spend the insurance claim to rebuild the athletic field. By the same margin, the council approved Rivera's request to rescind its earlier approval allowing him to borrow $875,000 to replace the field and repair the track, which also was damaged during the concert. The bid to repair the track will be issued separately and in time to put it back in use by the spring season, Rivera has said.

Net Sports Group is scheduled to remove the damaged turf this week.

Rivera told the council that the city should impose a "lifetime ban" prohibiting Floripa Productions from renting Vets Stadium again. The company specializes in staging concerts by Brazilian musicians.

Floripa's owner, Rita Mondardo, has declined to talk to the press about the concert.

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