Families Left to Pick Up Tab for Blue High School Turf

Jim Reis and four other members of an Oxford (Mich.) High School booster group will need to pay AstroTurf an estimated $300,000 by Sept. 1, after fundraising stalled for a $400,000 blue field that opened last year. When the boosters financed the project, five of them personally pledged to cover any budget shortfalls. "We're stuck," Reis told The Wall Street Journal, adding that he could sell a motor home in a worst-case scenario but that he doesn't want to take equity out of his house. "We pledged to pay the money. We signed our names. We are going to have to pay [AstroTurf] back."

"I thought we would have the community behind us," added Randy Reason, coach of Oxford's middle-school football team and another booster who backed the loan. "We thought the money would be attainable fairly easily." Others on the line for $60,000 each include Detroit Lions executive Bill Keenist and Oxford parks and recreation director Ron Davis.

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