SportsTurf 21www.stma.org

within the zone of influence of each individual irrigation head to as-sess any head distribution problems and provide insight into poten-tial causes (Figure 4); and c) assessing head spacing and systemperformance issues. The software program has been developed as apractical decision-support system to provide information on howuniform is soil VWC status (and all other measured parameters) atthese spatial levels and to generate recommend corrective measuresor fixes at each spatial level in order to enhance water application ef-ficiency. If an irrigation system is not well-designed, the degree andnature of design flaws are characterized and illustrated. For practicaland cost-effective use of multiple-sensor, mobile PTM platform in-formation, decision-support systems software such as described iscritical in order for large quantities of data to be processed, ana-lyzed, and presented in a timely manner.

On non-sports field sites, the soil moisture-based water auditwould be used to assess water-use efficiency and conservation. But,for sport fields, of most importance is the spatial variability in soilmoisture as related to the player safety and field playability factorsof soil hardness, traction, and shear strength; while still receivingthe other water audit benefits. Plant performance can also be as-sessed by spectral reflectance (NDVI) and possibly mobile digitalimaging devices in the future. Spatial differences in NDVI can berelated to traffic patterns (wear and soil compaction aspects) as wellas soil moisture distribution.

OTHER PTM APPLICATIONS FOR SPORTS FIELDSIn addition to performance testing and soil-based water audit

applications, site-specific cultivation and salinity mapping are otherapplications of PTM applicable to sport fields. Penetration resist-ance data obtained at field capacity can determine areas requiringcultivation. The salinity data on sites with saline irrigation watercan be used to determine spatial variability of soil salinity and aid indeveloping site-specific leaching programs. Surface hardness of infillsystems has also been investigated on a preliminary basis. Overtime, other measurement devices such as the ones identified in thesidebar will likely be developed that will allow other PTM field ap-plications.

Performance testing on sports fields can be significantly ad-vanced by using PTM concepts and technology. Of special impor-tance is to move beyond the practice of sport field “site-assessment”being based on only 4 to 6 sample areas per field and the lack of ex-ploring inter-relationships of soil surface characteristics. ■

Dr. Robert N. Carrow is with the Crop and Soil Science Dept.,University of Georgia-Griffin Campus; Dr. Van Cline is Toro’s managerof agronomics and turf. The authors would like to acknowledge TheCenter for Advanced Turfgrass Technology for research funds and KathyRice of the CATT for her expertise in development of the Decision Sup-port System software package.

22 SportsTurf | July 2011

FieldScience | By Eric Schroder

www.sportsturfonline.com

ROSS KURCAB, CSFM,turf manager for the Den-ver Broncos, gave an engag-ing presentation on “sight

turfing” as he calls it, at STMA’s Con-ference in January. Kurcab shared hisobservations on how by using theireyes, turf managers can increase theirfield management skills.

“How do you make critical deci-sions?” Kurcab asked the crowd. “Be-cause it can be the difference betweensuccess and failure.

“There is no operations manual fora field; it’s the only part of any facility

that doesn’t have one,” Kurcab said to anodding audience. “There’s no setstandard for doing your job. It’s a cow-boy world; you have to figure it out.”

Kurcab said in 26 years he’s neverhad a turf boss. “I’m a self-taughtidiot,” he joked. He said he learns dayto day and acknowledged that his situ-ation, managing only one field, isn’t atypical situation for the audience, yetthe sight-turfing approach has benefitsfor multi-field operations.

Several times in his talk Kurcabmentioned Attention to Detail. Hementioned having a back-up plan in

“My style of field management is a dailyread-and-react, using my eyes, which Iconsider my most valuable asset.”

Tips from NFL turf veteran Ross Kurcab, CSFM

>> ROSS KURCAB, CSFM on-site during construction of In-vesco Field at Mile High in 2000.

case your mower breaks down—do you have a 2ndmower or access to one?

“My style of field management is a daily read-and-react, using my eyes, which I consider my most valu-able asset. For example once we had a coyote peeing onthe field and it was making the grass greener aroundthe outside of the spot, so I decided it needed nitro-gen,” he said.

“You have to know how to look at your turfgrass anddevelop a working hypothesis on what’s going on withit. When you see something not green, address it. Wesee green best with our own eyes, it’s been proven scien-tifically,” he said. “I believe we see green better throughevolution because our ancestors recognized green as afood source.”

SUNGLASSES ARE A TOOLKurcab called sunglasses, holding up the pair hang-

ing around his neck, “light conditioners” and pointedout the safety factor in wearing sunglasses. He said po-larized sunglasses are safe against UV rays, reduce glareand increase clarity. “If you are getting too much glarein your eyes, you are getting too much light; that glarecan be coming from your turf,” he said.

“The lens tint makes a difference. I’ve found a greentint provides the best color contrast. Copper, rose andbrown lenses are better for sight-turfing, as they mini-mize the green and blue ‘wash’ and clarify any turf offcolor,” Kurcab said.

“I call my purple lens-glasses my “plant stress de-tection” glasses. That color is the best for seeingwhere it is NOT green. I recommend purple for giv-ing you advanced notice of disease and other poten-tial problems. “Give your eyes time to adjust to thepurple lens,” he said. “They work best in bright sun-light and are great for wilt patrol but they aren’t foreveryday 24/7 use.”

SIGHT TURFING TIPSKurcab shared some ideas on using your vision to

improve your turf. “See what you are not looking for,”he said. “Look for tonal contrast and ask yourself‘Why?’ if anything’s not green. And look at your turffrom different sun angles, especially looking toward thesun which gives more tonal contrast.”

“I think you should practice your sight turfing.Don’t do it just on your field but your lawn, whenyou’re at a park, wherever. Practice seeing the contrasts.Look macro and look micro,” Kurcab said. “Don’t walk

SportsTurf 23www.stma.org

past colors that look off. I try and diagnose‘every day and in every way’. I get a workinghypothesis and try to get an action plan forwhat I just saw.

“You can’t sight turf unless you knowhow grass plants grow in soils; you needsome education and you can get it onlinethese days.”

He said a turf manager’s job descriptionis basically a “daily update on working hy-potheses.” “Your maintenance plan shouldinclude a daily read-and-react. Sight turfyour field(s) during the game. Watch theplay from the knees down. Watch differentposition players and skill-types. Note thefootwear being used. How is the field orpitch performing? After the game, checkthe depth of the divots whether they are“skates, moguls, flaps, wrinkles orblowouts,” he said.

TIPSIf others come to look at a problem,

don’t try to sell them on your theory ofwhat’s wrong, Kurcab advised. “Let them

have their own diagnosis, maybe itwill help.”

Other tips included managing the weak-est link on your field; doing no harm—grassoften knows how to solve the issue; and re-membering sometimes taking no action isthe best action.

Kurcab said it’s key to find out if yourproblem is man-made or natural. “See astraight line of trouble? That’s likelyman-made.

Kurcab said when tackling a problemmake sure you determine if it is a safetyissue, a playability issue or an appearanceissue. “Remember in football, it’s betweenthe sidelines that is important. Be sure toconsider how much time you have to miti-gate a problem if it’s not affecting play.Teach your crew to sight turf to multiplythe number of eyes watching the field,”he said.

“The best advice is no good if you can’texecute it though. Try and boil down yourplan to a simple sentence. Analyze the effec-tiveness of past treatments or solutions,” he

said. “And always save a spot where youdon’t spray when trying a different product;use it as a control spot to check for effective-ness of that product.”

Kurcab urged the audience to use alltheir senses, with a nod against tastingyour turf. But smelling is fair game. “Onlysports turf managers smell their own turf,”he said.

He recommended managers use a digitalcamera and its cheap storage to take a lot ofpictures of your turf and to consider makinga video as your check your fields that in-cludes a running commentary about the is-sues. He mentioned the infamous bandcamp that he wanted to make sure he re-membered about the next year.

Kurcab closed by responding to a ques-tion about his biggest challenges as a turfmanager. “I can figure out the fields; it’smanaging people and staying calm in astressful environment that is most challeng-ing to me.” ■

24 SportsTurf | July 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com

➲ SHARE EQUIPMENT “Working in the public sector definitely

has it challenges. The greatest and most obvi-ous is the ever-shrinking budgets and thechore of doing more with less as members ofthe community still demand services at thehighest possible level. One way to help us

achieve the continued high level of serviceis by reaching out to other mu-

nicipalities in our area byprimarily theborrowing of

equipment. Whether it is a tractor or an aera-tor, this practice has been done with 4-5communities in the greater Portland, MEarea for the past 10 years. Individually eachcommunity cannot have all the necessaryequipment but together it is surprising whatis available just by picking up the phone andasking. This version of networking with othercommunities has helped each community inwhich they need help to achieve their goals inproviding quality services. I would stronglyurge other communities to start reaching outto others, whether other parks and rec oreven golf courses. Again, communities don’twant to lose services, so it is our job to thinkoutside of the box and keep services at thelevel community members expect.”-Rick Per-ruzzi, CSFM, CPRP, Wainwright RecreationComplex, South Portland, ME

➲ BE TRAINED IN TREE REMOVAL“One way we save thousands of dollars

throughout the season is through tree re-moval. I was lucky enough to be trained bya highly skilled tree feller at my old job at agolf course. Since then, I have also taken a40-hour training session through Stihl Cor-poration. I have now trained my staff in theproper techniques to fell live, dead andstorm damaged trees. Other than situationsnear power lines, we pretty much handleeverything in house.”-Shane Young, CSFM,Prince William County Park Authority,Woodbridge, VA

➲ INSTALL FENCING FOR SAFETY“When fencing [for] athletic fields is in-

stalled, make sure the mesh fabric is fastenedon the inside or field side of the posts. This isto soften the blow when contact is madeby the player. Also on Little League and base-ball fields, the outfield and foul territoryfencing should be a minimum of 6 feet high,and the higher the better. This is all to helpprevent serious injury from occurring when

participants come in contact with fencing.”-Stephen G. Matuza, CGCS, Master Green-keeper, CSFM and much more, for TheFarm at Oyster Bay, Syosset, NY

➲ USE VOLUNTEERS“I do make extensive use of volunteers in

the sports organizations for some mainte-nance like raking the baseball infieldareas. And some volunteers have businessesthat are willing to donate grass seed and fer-tilizer throughout the year.”-Dudley Rice,CPRP, CPSI, Solebury Township Parks &Recreation, Solebury, PA

➲ COMMUNICATE TO REDUCEWASTED TIME

“Good communication and proper plan-ning with your staff results in the desiredresult of the work that is to be done. Com-municating with your staff about what needsto be done and the time frame that is ex-pected will reduce the amount of wasted timeby not having the right tools and equipmentfor the task. And it will reduce wasted tripsback to the shop for anything that was for-gotten. Lack of communication results inwork not being done to the standard that wasexpected, along with having to take moretime to redo the task.”-Jason Moore CSFM,Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District,Beaverton, OR

➲ GOING GREEN SAVESYOU GREEN

“Convert outside area/security lighting tosolar lighting. We are in the process of evenplacing solar up-lighting at flagpoles. Reducemaintained turf areas to minimize costs(mowing, fertilizer, irrigation, etc). Even cate-gorize the remaining areas as athletic use,multi-use, and passive use to justify changesin maintenance practices.

Reduce the amount of overhead irriga-tion where possible, use micro irrigation.Change out interior lighting, HVAC, etc tomore efficient modern models. There areseveral grant opportunities still out therefor energy conservation.

Stop using huge trucks (3/4 ton andlarger) for every job. Replace what you canwith smaller trucks and alternative fuel andhybrids.”-Joel McKnight, CGCS, CPRP

El Paso General Services Dept., ElPaso, TX ■

Facility&Operations

Money-saving tips from parks & rec pros

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IN CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL PARK AND RECREATION MONTH, STMAhas asked several sports turf managers who work in parks and recreation to share their toptips for cost savings and effectiveness.

26 SportsTurf | July 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com

Facility&Operations | By Eric Schroder

The panel began by assuring theaudience that some day every syn-thetic turf field will need to be re-placed.

In response to a question on al-ternatives to SBR rubber infill, thepanel cited research saying thecrumb rubber is safe and noted thatsome areas don’t allow crumb rub-ber as infill, in New York City andLos Angeles, for example. Alterna-tive infills cost significantly morethan crumb rubber, it was noted.

Daily of the Bengals said theNFL currently has no policy re-garding whether its playing surfacesshould be natural turf or synthetic.He advised that if rain is forecastthe day of an event on your syn-thetic field you should cover thefield if possible, though Dailynoted that he has the luxury of thetime and money to do this.

He said he is more aggressivenow with grooming the field inCincinnati, hitting it three times aweek during the NFL season. Headded that the Bengals also practiceon the game field, unlike manyNFL teams, and that makes a dif-ference. “I can see the difference ifwe can’t drag it,” he said.

In response to another question,Daily said wavy lines can some-

times be an issue and recommendsusing a broom to straighten thelines. He said firm but not hard isthe goal and that too much groom-ing makes the field too soft and notenough grooming makes it toohard. After 7 years, Daily’s field isshowing signs of age and its Gmaxrating has risen.

Daily also said his field wasmanufactured before the newmonofilament products now invogue, and that he has heard com-plaints about “moving infill” insome of these fields at the NFLlevel. “All fibers are going to layover regardless of what kind it is,”Daily said.

Another point the panel madesure was heard is that maintenanceis necessary for synthetic fields.“No maintenance” claims arewrong and everyone knows it.

On the topic of cooling downthe synthetic infill fields, Daily saidthe water cannons at his field aregreat but they don’t work to coolthe field. He uses them as part ofhis maintenance practices, hitting15-20 minutes per station, saying itcleans the fibers and the infill andkeeps debris off the field. He triesto get everything as clean as he can,he said.

Putting moisture into the sand and rubber gives players afeel they like, Daily said, they can feel their cleats going in andout and it’s not sticky. “Later in the season I might cut downbecause there’s already moisture, like if it snows.”

Daily said his field has experienced less static as it has aged. The panel agreed that 8-year warranties are now the industry

standard.When a field is between 8 and 11 years old, if it has been

subject to sunlight 365 days a year, the UV rays will start tobreak down the fibers, Daily said. He said to get maximumyears out of your synthetic turf you should groom it less, andthat a field’s location also makes a difference. A Texas field ab-sorbs a more intense UV ray than one in New Hampshire, forexample, so theoretically the NH field would last longer.

Serensits cited research at PSU, where they have tested shoeson their synthetic turf plots, that showed flat-soled shoes willwear a field faster than cleats.

One attendee wondered if someday there would be an envi-ronmentally related tax to pay to process the old infill material.A panel member responded that equipment exists that can re-move 65-70% of the old infill; it is cut up and put in a landfilland that he knew of no current issues with that practice.

Another attendee, from Cincinnati, said a nearby cementplant was causing abrasions to his field’s fibers and was told hehad to just keep flushing that unwanted material through the

Synthetic turfupdate fromSTMA ConferenceAT THE SYNTHETIC TURF UPDATE SESSION STMA hosted last January, a panel answeredquestions from the audience. The panel includedWebb Cook, president of Sprinturf, Darian Daily ofthe Cincinnati Bengals, Shawn Mahonski of TowsonUniversity, and Tom Serensits of Penn State’s Centerfor Sports Surface Research.

The panel agreed that 8-year warranties are now the industry standard.

SportsTurf 27www.stma.org

system. The panel expressed more concernabout the number of sticks and sunflowerseeds and god-knows what else that regularlymust be removed from these fields.

Mahonski said at Towson that outsidegroups, particularly soccer and lacrosseleagues, renting his facility sign for responsi-bility if the field needs to be cleaned afterthey use it. The bill to clean the field? Ma-honski said about $1,700. He recommendedeveryone put language doing the same in alltheir contracts.

Mahonski said he knows a guy whogrooms his field every day and that he’s wear-ing out the 4-year-old field.

Cook said manufacturers’ manuals mostoften recommend grooming every 4 to 6weeks. The GreensGroomer product wasmentioned for the second time by an audi-ence member as being an effective groomer.This one said he saves his field from wear bysetting the brush height differently and light-ens the setting on his machine and also byadjusting the tension.

The panel recommended removing leaves

ASAP, using air such as a pull-behind blower,to get them off. Handhelds work too, nomatter what leaves need to “leave” in a hurry.

A machine from Redexim Charterhousealso was mentioned by an attendee who saidits rotary brush helped bring the rubber anddebris up off the surface and the rubber isthen shaken back out, which works for him.A panelist recommended a magnet attach-ment to pull out metal, and showed a slidewith more than a handful of hairpins andworse pulled from the surface.

STUDIES ON PROLONGING LIFE?The panel said that infill material gets

harder over time and the carpet fibers wear,though it was noted that the newer fields’fibers are wearing better while some ques-tions remain as to their longevity.

Cook said, “After 4 or 5 years, I recom-mend that once a year you spend the $5,000it costs for a professional, deep-cleaning serv-ice to help prolong your field’s life. Youshould work this cost into the budget for theproject upfront.”

This deep cleaning also includes tining ofthe field and added infill to bring downGmax numbers. A growing number of con-tractors nationwide are getting into the busi-ness of cleaning the ever-increasing numberof synthetic fields being built annually.

The panel cited it is important to havestrength and other coaches rotate the spotsthey use repetitively on the field. Anotherpoint was made on the wisdom of a $15,000fence to protect a $750,000 investment in asynthetic field. Companies are happy to re-place damaged, or as in the case in Canadarecently stolen, turf but it will cost you.

An audience member said he knew of a 6-year-old field in New Hampshire that hadbeen dragged in the same direction the entiretime and was left with a “not good” situa-tion. He recommended changing it up,going corner to corner, side to side, northand south, and don’t set the machine to gotoo deep so as not to disturb the seams,whether glued or sewn. ■

28 SportsTurf | July 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com

Facility&Operations

MARK FREVER, CSFM,Albion College (MI)

Pre-mow surface with rotary mower thathas side discharge or capable of bagging.

Clean nozzle tips or replace worn tips forconsistent width of painted line.

From start to finish, pull lines withstring, preferably offset.

A local soccer club parent had the idea toreduce the frequency of painting lines—hewould just add a touch of glyphosate to thepaint. After 2 weeks of painting he reducedthe turf but had to continue painting baresoil. Consequently, the bare soil lines be-came trip hazards until they filled in withweeds.

ALLEN JOHNSON, CSFM, Green Bay Packers

No disruptions from extra activity liketeam walk-throughs, extra event practices,etc. during application.

Make sure there is drying time and goodweather if possible.

Have the correct number of people to dothe job right.

I hate to admit this, but I inadvertentlypainted the “G” on Lambeau’s 50-yard lineupside down once. The error was caught by

one of our stadium chefs who was looking atthe field from one of the luxury suites. I wasvery, very glad that someone noticed andbrought it to our attention with plenty oftime to correct the error. Ironically the upsidedown G looks like an “e” and we happened tobe hosting the Philadelphia Eagles. Someonewas looking out for me on that day.

DAVID M. PRESNELL, CSFM, Gainesville (GA) Parks & Recreation

A good surface. You need healthy turf-grass that is mowed at a good height.

Be prepared. Always check weather, haveall supplies on hand, mix paint properly andpaint as close to the event as possible.

Be precise. ALWAYS pull strings/sled &use stencil. Always measure everything andcheck it twice. Straight lines and crisp logosmake all the difference.

I have seen and been a part of all kinds ofsmall mishaps. Everything from spillingpaint, string getting pulled on wrong side andputting arrows on the wrong side of numbers.The biggest one was when we were paintingan end zone logo and someone was blowingclippings off with a tractor and blower. Theguys painting went to refill the paint and be-

fore you knew it the tractor went thru thelogo (not once but twice) and tracked redand white paint everywhere. Thank good-ness it was water-based.

SHAUN ILTEN, Home Depot Center (CA)

Make sure all equipment is runningproperly and have all the required toolsneeded for the job (tips, measuring tapes,nails/stakes, string, fuel, proper paint etc.)

Double check all your measure-ments—make sure all your points are ac-curate and making sure your field issquared.

Proper communication with your staffduring the field painting work, whichmeans being aware of each individual taskis being accomplished properly.

The worst painting disaster I was in-volved would have to be when I waspainting a standard football field for ahigh school game. I was painting yardlines when I reached my last three yardlines to go, when I noticed that one of myyard lines was severely angled. One of myco- workers had skipped a marker andwent to the next one so one side was 5yards and the other side was 10 yards!This could have been avoided with propercommunication and double checking allmy measurements making sure that everyyard line that I paint is accurate.

KEVIN MALONE, CSFM,Columbia University

Have enough prior notice from athlet-ics to complete the task when weatherand conditions are most favorable.

Ensure the sprayer is in tip top shapeand working properly.

Using high quality paint.I would say the worst disaster would

be just before my taking this position, thelacrosse lines that are supposed to bepainted with removable paint werepainted with a permanent product! Ittook many gallons of Goof Off, paint re-mover, you name it and many, manyhours of scrubbing to finally remove thepaint. Columbia only wants football lineson the main fields during the game sea-son. Hopefully that will never happenagain! ■

Field painting tips& disaster stories

What 3 factors do you considermost important to completingfield painting work efficientlyand successfully?

What is the worst painting disaster you’ve ever been involved with or seen happen?

Q:

Q:

30 SportsTurf | July 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com

Facility&Operations | By Max Utsler

Well ol’ Mike has retired and, for themost part, you’ll never have to worry aboutsomeone else from “60 Minutes” headingto your 3rd base coach’s box and askingwhat caused that giant mushroom cloud.But the recent explosion of new media out-lets combined with the more traditionalmedia outlets has led to a whole new armyof reporters who just might be interested inhow you handle (or don’t handle) yourbusiness. That growth of media outlets hasre-emphasized for every potential news-maker, the importance of knowing how todeal with the media, or as you should thinkof it, defending your “turf.”

Back when you were much younger(probably only five or 10 years ago), youcould assess potential media coverage byconsidering the local newspaper, the localtalk radio station and the local TV newsoutlet. You knew the reporters by nameand by sight, and they knew you. Youshopped at the same stores, ate at the samerestaurants and told similar stories abouthow high your golf handicap should be.Ahhhh, life was so simple then.

Then along came the internet and yourworld turned upside down. You quicklymoved into the age of instant news and theself-appointed, citizen journalist. Thought-ful, edited journalism gave way to “seat-of-the-pants” journalism. Fact-based reportinggave way to opinion and commentary. Youhave now entered a world of bloggers, twit-terers and whole bunch of ‘ers that haven’teven been invented yet. Better get ready.

The first step in dealing with this hyper-speed news media cycle is to do what youshould have been doing all along—play of-fense. Most newsmakers love to contact

the media when they bring “good news.”Your department received an award froman environmental organization, check.Number of turf-related injuries reduced inthe past 12 months, check. You come upwith an innovative way of watering theplaying fields, check. Those are all validstories, and you should contact the localmedia to get the word out.

But what happens when the news is notso good or just downright bad? Many or-ganizations follow a, “if we just don’t feedit, maybe it will go away” philosophy. Toy-ota and BP pretty much took that ap-proach in recent months. Now that workedwell, didn’t it?

Had those organizations taken moreearly ownership of the story, each wouldhave greatly reduced the self-inflicted pub-lic relations damage. Yes, the news wouldhave been truly negative in the early days,but maybe, just maybe, if they had achance to advance their version of whathappened, perhaps the media might haveseen another side and soft-pedaled some ofthe criticism. You could argue that wouldbe a losing proposition. And the “just ig-nore it” plan was not?

In all likelihood you will never face thatkind of major crisis. But one way to keep aminor crisis from becoming a major one isto initiate the coverage. Let’s look at someexamples that you could encounter: in-juries grow as poor lighting hampers yourkey fields; staph infections develop in play-ers using the synthetic turf fields; orbleachers fail during kids’ soccer game

If the media get a tip on what happenedin any of those cases, you will be playingdefense, answering the “How could you

ever let that happen?” question. You knowwhat it’s like when a parent or coach de-cides to escalate something that you thinkis rather insignificant. Things can get outof hand in a hurry.

Now let’s take a look at how to initiatecoverage and frame each of those stories ina more positive way.

• The lighting on River Bend Field ismore than 30 years old. We haven’t beenable to find parts to repair some of the bro-ken units. As a result the illumination isabout half of what it should be. That hasled to a number of recent injuries. We neednew lights, but that is going to cost morethan $200,000. This is a bad time to beasking the city for more money. We mayhave to stop using that field.

• A local pediatrician recently contactedus and said he had been treating a numberof kids with staph infection. He had dis-covered that all of them were soccer playerswho play their games on the synthetic sur-face at Partridge Park. Once he called thatto our attention we were able to use a non-toxic chemical sweeper to rid those fields ofpotential problems. The surface is cleanand ready for its heavy fall use.

• Fortunately no one was hurt seriously,but three parents had to seek medical at-tention when the front row of woodenbleachers snapped during a girls’ softballgame. That incident has prompted us tobegin inspecting every row of every set ofbleachers we have at our 73 facilities. Wewill have the full inspection completed bythe end of the week.

The process follows a very simple for-mula. Admit the wrongdoing then explainhow you will keep it from happeningagain. If you admit to the problem, it’s veryhard for the reporter to keep beating youup over it. Deny the problem, and the re-porter will go after you like crabgrass onzoysiagrass.

This all starts from a premise that if youare a part of a story that has legitimate pub-lic interest, you have a responsibility to beaccessible to the media. This is especiallytrue if you work for a taxpayer-supported,government body like many of you do.

While the process begins with initiatingthe coverage, your job is far from finished.Now you must handle the interview. Fol-

“turf”Defending your

AN OLD JOKE made its way through e-mail a few years back. It was some-thing like, “You know it’s a bad day when you wake up in the morning,

and Mike Wallace and a “60 Minutes” crew are perched on your front porch.”