Saratoga News

Council allocates $1 million to improving playing fields

By Sarah Lombardo

Park and recreation projects placed on the back burner while the city wrestled with budget woes have finally gained approval. The City Council voted at its meeting July 22 to approve five of the nine projects recommended by the Saratoga Parks and Recreation Commission. Three of the nine projects are already in the design or construction phase.

Handrails and a restroom at Hakone Gardens and improvements to the city's Heritage Orchard, on the corner of Fruitvale and Saratoga avenues, are three of the projects already begun. Approved by the council were plans to improve playing fields at local school sites, with an estimated $1 million slated for the project; to commission architectural drawings for renovations to the Warner Hutton House Teen Center, for which $5,000 has been earmarked; and to construct restrooms at Wildwood Park, estimated to need $100,000. Not approved was funding for the construction of a new community pool at Saratoga High School. Commissioners and councilmembers said they felt the time was just not right for the project.

Mayor Gillian Moran stressed that figures assigned to projects are approximate. Moran said it was her hope that after city staffers look into the projects, they will find they require less money.

The projects represented a virtual wish list of improvements, to be paid for through the city's $2 million Park and Recreation Development Fund. Last year, a series of community workshops was held to create the project list.

After those meetings, a final list of projects, from field improvement to the development of a community hub, was worked out. But project approval was put on hold until the November election, after which the projects were again delayed until the city could work through its budget.

Commissioners were then asked to prioritize the projects on the list. But commissioners had a tough task ahead of them. By law, development-fund money can only be used for the creation or improvement of park and recreation projects, not for maintenance. With the city's budget so tight, maintenance money could be in short supply, so commissioners had to come up with projects that fulfilled residents' needs but did not create high maintenance drains on the city. With the budget approved in late June, the door was open to revisit the list.

"I'm just thrilled, because I think that everything that got approved was everything the commission wanted," Commissioner Jennifer Crotty said. "We had really pushed for these projects."

Although councilmembers said all the projects on the list were worthy, Moran acknowledged that city staff could not possibly handle all of the projects at once. Interim City Manager Larry Perlin said the ones chosen could be handled for now, and the others examined later.

"The whole process of finishing all the remaining projects will take long enough that we will certainly have the opportunity to come back several times for updates," Moran said.

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