February 10, 1977
Page 4333
KEEP ON TRACKIN'
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, Warwick M. Tinsley, Jr., Maine State conservationist, has recently brought to my attention an ambitious effort by a group of Maine high school students to improve their school athletic grounds. Forty forestry and conservation students at Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, Maine, found a remedy to a field drainage problem that had rendered the school's athletic fields useless each spring.
Assisted by the Soil Conservation Service and Time and Tide Resource Conservation and Development Council — an organization of midcoastal Maine civic minded citizens — the students provided the labor for the construction of a drainage system which drained of water at the rate of 5 gallons every 4 minutes in the dry season.
I am proud of the efforts of the students at Medomak Valley High School, and equally proud that Soil Conservation, a nationwide publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, detailed the story in the November issue. I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From Soil Conservation, November 1976]
KEEP ON TRACKIN'
(By Doris Laber)
(Bogged down with a wet track, students and teachers at a Maine high school picked up shovels — and knowledge — as they put in a tile line with the help of a soil and water conservation district, school officials, and an RC&D council.)
Away.
Away.
Away.
That's how the track and field schedule for Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, Maine, has read every spring since the school opened in 1968. All meets have been held away.
"It's been an unbearable situation,"Athletic Coach Arthur Dyer declared. "During most springs it has been so wet that a person walking on the track would leave footprints 2 to 4 inches deep."
The 100 boys and girls on teams had to compete — and even practice — on opponents' fields or neutral grounds. The entire student body was limited to indoor physical education classes each spring.
A remedy was found through student and teacher involvement in a special project of the Time and Tide Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) area.
School officials found that the field drainage problem met the requirements for an RC&D measure. This could provide funds for the engineering design and materials.
The local sponsors — the Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the school administrative district — would have to pay for labor and equipment, estimated at $4,000.
That left the project on the verge of bogging down as thoroughly as anyone who dared to venture out on the track.
Then Medomak students decided to pitch in and work for what they wanted. Their labors — in a learning situation — became the answer to the budget problems.
Under a detailed plan, 40 forestry and conservation students were released from classes for a week to prepare the area for backhoe work. Their teacher, Douglas Meservey, led the project. Meservey, a supervisor of the Knox-Lincoln SWCD, spent a week onsite with the students. He also was on call for assistance needed by other teachers supervising the job.
The athletic director and coaches were freed from regular duties to assist when needed. Other classroom teachers supplemented the team.
SWCD technician Raynold Holmes served as project director to see that the drainage system was installed according to specifications. He was "the thread of continuity for the program,"said Meservey.
After lessons from Holmes in using a level, the students set grade stakes for the backhoe operator to follow.
Because of earlier work by students, they had use of a backhoe and operator at no charge. Students in building trades classes had built a storage shed for the town, so the town loaned them the equipment — the only heavy equipment used in the project besides gravel trucks.
After the trench was dug with the backhoe, students shaped the trench bottom to a grade of 11/2 inches per 100 feet. They wielded shovels, spades, and wheelbarrows and carefully put gravel under and over 3,400 feet of title.
"The students were very conscientious,"Meservey said. "Some areas were done and redone to get the job right."
The work was completed in the "dry"season. Even then, students figured that the completed system was draining off water at the rate of 5 gallons every 4 minutes — enough to fill more than five railroad tank cars in a month.
The track is now resurfaced with finely crushed stone and the disturbed areas have been reseeded.
Improvements are not limited to the track. The school plans to set up sites for javelin, shotput, high jump, and broad jump in the infield and in nearby areas outside the track. Also, some of the soil displaced by the tile line has been used to fill potholes in the soccer and baseball fields.
Not the least of the improvements is that considerably less mud should be tracked into the school. "And that makes for good relations between maintenance and administrative people," said Dyer with a grin.
Come spring, the teams expect to play a full schedule, with 4 weeks added to their spring sports season.
And, at last, the programs will be listing games at "Home."