City tries to find playfield for homeless Pony League
By Kara Chalmers
The Congress Springs Park improvement task force met Aug. 24, so that it could come up with a new recommendation for the Parks and Recreation Commission concerning the park's remodel.
The $1.2 million renovation of Congress Springs Park, a 10-acre park that is used for baseball and soccer, came about partly because of the need to best use the playfields that already exist in the city.
The goals of the renovation are to get as many playfields as possible from the five baseball fields there now, and to make the old and uneven fields safer. The construction is set to begin at the park in June 2001 and last until Sept. 2001.
Yet again, the task force settled on option 3B--the same option it chose almost a month ago, which means that the park's remodel plans do not include a field for Saratoga Pony League.
The task force is made up of representatives of Congress Springs Park's user groups-- Saratoga Pony League, Saratoga Little League and the American Youth Soccer Organization--as well as city staff, City Councilman Nick Streit and the architects and consultants hired to design the new park.
Pony League, which this past season was comprised of 39 players, ages 13-14, currently uses the baseball field closest to Glen Brae Drive at Congress Springs Park. According to Matt Durket, the director of the Pony level for the League, there may be up to 50 players next year.
"I find it hard to believe you would put together a plan and send it to council excluding Pony," Durket said at the Parks and Recreation Commission's Aug. 28 meeting.
But the commission voted 3-1 to approve the plan, with Commissioner Nick Seroff opposing. According to commission Chairwoman Judy Alberts, the task force has done its best and it was time for the commission to make a decision.
"I think we need to move forward," agreed Commissioner Barbara Olsen at the meeting.
According to John Cherbone, Saratoga's public works director and task force member, the task force's job is to make the best use of Congress Springs, the only park in the city that hosts organized sports for kids.
"All the other options haven't been successful," Cherbone said of the city's quest to use school sites or acquire more land for playfields. "Our only choice right now is to try to make the most of Congress Springs."
According to Cherbone, the task force chose to put in all Little League fields at Congress Springs since there are more Little League players. In Saratoga Little League, there are between 450 and 500 players, ages 5-12. Part of the reason also is because a Pony League field, which is larger than a Little League field, would encroach into the soccer field planned for that location, he said. In AYSO, there are more than 1,000 players.
The city called representatives from all three user groups-AYSO, Little League and Pony League--before each meeting, Cherbone said, adding that a Pony League representative came to two early meetings. However, no Pony League representative was present at the Aug.21 meeting on converting El Quito Park, nor at the Aug. 24 task force meeting.
"Not that it's right or wrong, but you got written out of the plan," said Councilman Nick Streit to Durket at the meeting on Aug. 28. Streit noted that there has not been one meeting, neither a task force meeting nor a commission public hearing, at which representatives from all of the user groups have been present to sit down and talk about compromises.
"Quite frankly, this is frustrating as hell," Streit said.
Cherbone said the task force would continue to look for somewhere else to put a Pony League field, until all avenues are exhausted.
"At this point, I can't say," Cherbone responded when asked where the League will play.
On Aug. 7, on the task force's recommendation, the commission approved a plan to move the Pony League field to a neighborhood park--El Quito Park, so that Congress Springs would only have Little League fields.
But on Aug. 21, neighbors of El Quito turned up at the commission's meeting to vehemently oppose the plans to turn the field at El Quito--today used for adult softball--into a Pony League field. The commission amended its prior vote, taking out the section about moving the Pony League field to El Quito, in order to assuage the neighbors. Cherbone said that, unfortunately, there are no other parks in the city as well suited to a field conversion as El Quito Park, since there is an existing softball field there.
The task force then went quickly back to the drawing board, so that it could come up with a solution in time for the city council meeting on Sept. 6. But, according to Cherbone, the task force could not come up with a better, more efficient option than the one it chose on Aug. 7.
This option, number 3B, calls for the park to be laid out with room enough for eight soccer fields, three of them 300 feet by 150 feet and five of them 150 feet by 100 feet. When not in use for soccer, the park could hold three Little League baseball fields with 60-foot base lines, two semi-permanent Little League fields with 45-foot base lines and two T-ball fields.
This option includes eliminating the basketball court and tennis court at Congress Springs today. It includes keeping the playground, restrooms and parking area, constructing a walking path around the entire park, adding more landscaping and possibly adding some amenities, such as batting cages.
While the other options favored either baseball or soccer, option 3B was the best compromise, Cherbone said.
Durket said that Pony League would like to stay at Congress Springs Park but would not have minded moving to El Quito.
"If you can't find us a place at El Quito, we have to stay at Congress Springs Park," Durket said at the meeting Aug. 28. "There's 39 kids, maybe 50, who need to play ball at the Pony League level." According to Durket, many parents of Pony League players are likely to show up at the Sept. 6 council meeting.
According to Cherbone, no groups will be kept from using any of the fields at the park, but the Little League fields may not meet the needs of Pony League, which uses 75-foot base lines, not 60. While high school fields are too large for Pony League players, Little League fields are too small.
Durket said it would be possible for Pony to share the field with Little League as long as it had removable bases.
In addition, the California Youth Soccer Association is now asking to use the fields for practice, according to Cherbone.
The 22 El Quito Park neighbors who spoke in opposition to the Pony League field plan on Aug. 21, cited the increased number of cars, parking spaces, people, trash and noise, the use of hard balls rather than soft balls and a reduction in grass and trees as reasons why El Quito should not be converted to a Pony League field.
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