The multimillion-dollar fencing project at Riverway Sports Park will be complete by the end of March, but community dismay over limited access to the soccer fields and an apparent lack of answers from City Hall may linger long after the workcrews are finished and gone.
Fences Meant to Give More Playing Time
The original plan for fencing at Riverway envisioned setting apart the 10 full-size soccer fields with chainlink fences, and it grew into a two-phase project to surround the fields, as well as to enclose the whole park, inside 7-foot-tall spiked iron security fences. The cost, of course, grew as well. The entire project allocation is $3.89 million, up from $1.5 million when first proposed.
“It’s probably going to be finished in the next few weeks. We’re hoping the project will be finished by the end of the month,” said Parks and Recreation manager Jason Glick. “There will be a punchlist (a list of possible issues with the project) with the contractor, and we expect to be done by the end of March.”
The two phases serve two purposes. Surrounding the entire park in a fence protects the whole facility. Specifically, it’s intended to end after-hours use of Riverway, which has been a target of vandalism and the scene of criminal activity, city officials say. Surrounding the soccer fields with fences inside the fence – and keeping them locked even when the rest of the park is open to the public – is the result of an entirely different issue.
“What we’re trying to do is make the soccer fields open for more of the year,” Glick said. “This is so they’ll be more available to the public.”
Fencing off the soccer fields allows grounds crews time to rehabilitate them. It also prevents the fields from overuse, a problem that has plagued Riverway in the past.
“When the park opens after the summer closure, they’ve (the soccer fields) been open for 13 weeks,” Glick said. “When November rolls around, the fields have just turned to dirt. We’re trying to avoid that for future years.”
The city is also cutting off open access to the soccer fields during the park’s regular operating hours, and that’s left some of the people who use the park on a daily basis resentful.
Lack of Answers Frustrates Park-Going Neighbors
Closing off the soccer fields with a minimum of information has left neighbors and other regular park-goers feeling as if they’ve been cut off suddenly with little or not enough explanation.
Estrella Correa, who lives across the street from Riverview Sports Park and is a frequent visitor, isn’t satisfied with officials’ responses to her requests for clear information about who can use the park and when. She’s been having problems getting answers to her questions since the plan for fencing was hatched, she said, and is still not satisfied.
“I live across the street from the park, and I’ve been asking a lot of questions about access to the park,” she said. “Then the fencing started going up, and I went to a Council Corner meeting. I spoke to Mayor (Brett) Taylor about the park being closed so much of the year. I asked if the fields could be open part of the year.”
She says she never got an answer.
“I expressed concern about the fields being open to the public,” Correa said. “He (Taylor) said he’d talk to someone and get back to me. He never did.”
Correa eventually exchanged emails with Parks and Rec director Glick, who gave her an outline of the fencing project’s development, she said, but not the practical answers she wanted. The public, Correa learned, will no longer have open, free access to the fields.But that information wasn’t readily available from the city, Correa said.
“I called the number on the application,” she said. “The woman who answered at Parks and Rec didn’t know. She didn’t know anything.”
Public Can Rent Soccer Fields, but Insurance a Must
Correa has been seeking help from her district’s council representative, Emmanuel Soto, who also had to dig to find information about when the fields were open and to whom, she said.
“I just knew the fields were closed some of the time. I was concerned about public access,” she said. “You (city officials) said all these things are discussed in public, and you don’t know. My councilman has to dig for answers. I’ve been told at the city council meeting, agendas are always available online. If you care about these things you can go to the meetings.”
Soto said he’s been fielding complaints from citizens related to Riverway Park since the fencing started going up.
“I haven’t been a big fan of the fence since the beginning, since I asked for changes to the design,” he said.
The original fencing design had no pedestrian entrance at the park’s southwest corner, making it more difficult for those living nearby to walk in. Soto said Parks and Rec fixed the issue, but he believes cutting off open access to all the soccer fields goes too far.
“They did listen to citizens about access and added a gate at the southwest corner,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t see any reason for the fence. You can make an argument for a couple of fields, but not all the soccer fields.”
The bottom line is any member of the public can still rent the fields for their own use. But anyone wishing to use the fields for an event must complete an application form and provide proof of $1 million in liability insurance. And the coverage has to indemnify the city against loss and litigation.
Soccer Fields Will Be Open Four Days a Week
Perhaps the reason information about who can use the Riverway fields and when is because the city’s policy is still changing. While the public will be able to rent the fields, just as clubs and other organizations have in the past, they’ll only be able to do it on certain days.
“What we’re doing right now is a pilot program of having soccer games on Saturday and Sunday,” Glick said. “We’re letting the public rent them for practices and Tuesdays and Thursdays. And they’re dark on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”
The dark days are intended to allow the fields the recovery time they need to remain in good playing condition. Overused and under-maintained fields present a safety issue for players, and the city wants to avoid potential injuries and associated liabilities.
Soto said he’s gotten the same information as he looked into the issue.
“I reached out to staff and did get a similar answer,” he said. “They’re doing a pilot (project) this year, since it’s the first year they can control access to the soccer fields.”
The city, he said, needs to do a better job communicating its plans to citizens. Of course anyone who wishes to discuss the soccer fields, or any other city-related matter, is welcome to attend any meeting of the city council or the Parks and Recreation Committee to voice their opinions.
That might be particularly important here, as Glick said the city will evaluate the results of the pilot program and perhaps retool it. Much depends on the playing condition of the field under the new scheme.
“This is just a pilot program. We’re trying to see how this works out,” Glick said. “We’ll reevaluate when the spring is over. We’re going to reevaluate the soccer field conditions.”
So I can get some friends together and play basketball without getting insurance, but if we want to play soccer, we need a one million dollar policy?
My understanding is if you reserve the field or an area, I would assume a basketball court too, you’ll need insurance since it’s an organized sporting event. Going to play a pick up game with friends or family, you wouldn’t need one since it’s really not organized for an event open to the public. If that makes sense. That’s with every city.