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Soccer field plan means that trees would have to go

By Willys Peck

When someone whose writing appears in print happens to make a mistake, it's only proper for that person to make the required change and say something on the order of, "I stand corrected." So that's where I stand: I need correcting. The correction has to do with my previous column, in which I implied that Kevin Moran Park was likely to get a full-scale soccer stadium, complete with bleachers and the works. Wrong.

What is likely is that the park's present soccer practice field will be augmented by a playing field. There is a size factor here. The practice field is 165 by 195 feet. The playing field, according to a city source, would be 330 feet long and 195 feet wide. This would require removing some trees, including some dead ones in the orchard remnant at one corner of the park. Also, there is a century-old oak in that orchard that some neighbors fear might be threatened.

At present, Kevin Moran Park does not have a restroom. Addition of a soccer field would mean adding a restroom, which is likely to happen anyway. The park itself has the status of a community, rather than a neighborhood, park. As of this writing, the final soccer-field decision has not been made. Stay tuned for later developments.

On a less sensitive note, it's the season for observing a rich Saratoga tradition, the annual Memorial Day service. Coordinated by the Saratoga Foothill Club, the ceremony has been a community feature since 1928. It's scheduled for May 29 and will begin with raising of the flag and placing of a wreath at the Memorial Arch in Blaney Plaza at 9:30 a.m.

Participants there will then walk up Oak Street to Madronia Cemetery, with the percussion section of Redwood Middle School's band, directed by Vicky Wyant, providing the beat. Proceedings at Madronia will start at 10 a.m.

Mayor Norman Kline will give the city's greeting, and the Rev. Arvin Engelson of the Federated Church will give the invocation and benediction. Speaker of the day will be Army Capt. Antoine Brooks, a 20-year veteran recently returned from Iraq. Music will be provided by the Saratoga High School band and choir.

As in the past, members of youth organizations will have prepared laurel wreaths, which they will put on veterans' graves where they have placed flags. There are graves of more than 800 veterans, dating back to the Civil War, at Madronia.

On the subject of Madronia, I was pleased that my wife and I could be part of a recent tour of the cemetery conducted by arborist Barrie Coate, in which he explained in detail the remarkable variety of tree and shrub plantings there. For some reason, cemetery foliage seems to be one of things you naturally take for granted. But when the plantings are explained in detail, it's as if they take on a whole new dimension. I'm pleased to have my name already on a stone up there. Just waiting to fill in the blanks.

As long as we're in the upper-Oak Street neighborhood, I might as well mention a recent gathering of people concerned about a planned house at the corner of Oak and Komina Avenue. The aged, two-story house that had been there was destroyed by fire, and some concerned neighbors had obtained drawings of the proposed dwelling for the site. I wouldn't put it in the Villa Montalvo class exactly, but in its size and luxurious exterior, I think it could pass as a second cousin.

My memories of the destroyed house go back a good 77 years when I was in the first grade at Saratoga Grammar School. Our classroom was in what now is the media center, and the outside door opened onto Komina. I remember how one of my classmates, Jack Clarke, was able to go across the street to his house during recess and play with his toy cars.

But as to the planned house on that site: As one who lives in the past, I tend to favor preserving whatever remains of a historical atmosphere, and I think that part of upper Oak Street has something of that element. The house next door is the old Congregational Church parsonage, dating back to 1886. Across the street, where St. Charles Street intersects, is the 1897 Missionary Settlement house, with its Queen Anne-style exterior beautifully preserved.

I, and apparently some neighbors there, would like to see something a little more in keeping with the vintage atmosphere going in at that site.