Buckley track opens

Published Sept. 29, 2006
By By Senior Airman Jacque Lickteig
460th Space Wing Public Affairs

BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Buckley's new 400 meter track and football field opened Monday, marked by an inaugural lap ran by David Ziegler, Kevin Candler and about six others.

Last year, flag football players played in a dirt parking lot, and prior to the opening, runners had to run on roads or sidewalks or on the inside track at the fitness center.

Now, football players play on a flag football regulation-sized field covered in Colorado's grass of choice, Kentucky Blue Grass.

Runners can tread on black all-weather surfacing around the field.

The project started in September 2005, and it was scheduled to be finished Nov. 10, 2006, said Michelle Murphy, 460th Civil Engineer Squadron project officer. Therefore, they finished about a month and a half early.

The lights around the field are scheduled to be up and running by mid-October.

The 460th CES is waiting on a specially-ordered transformer to power the lights.

Murphy said the 460th CES will also install a perimeter fence with two personnel gates and one vehicle gate to keep prairie dogs off the field.