Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Alpine Lakes play field design has room for many sports

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After many changes, it appears there might be a final design for the Alpine Lakes play field. Leavenworth Soccer President Aaron Simon said at the April 24 Cascade School Board meeting, that his group has volunteered to help with the field design.

“With the new bond passing, we have a vested interested in making sure we maintain field space for the kids, not just soccer, but for baseball, football, softball, playground,” Simon said. “Working with the school district, we volunteered to evaluate different landscape architects and develop a plan that would fit for the school district as well as the different recreational sports.”

Simon said they started with the selection process in April of 2016. They did a blind selection with four different landscape architects, two local and two not local. The Leavenworth Soccer Board, after examining examples of other fields they’d done, selected Renton architects, SLA Landscape Architects.

“They’ve done lots of different fields in the state, as well as nationally and internationally. They were responsible for some project management, gathering data on what we might like to see on the fields,” Simon said of SLA Architects. “The school districts, as well as the other rec groups, have provided a cost model, masterplan and site plan.”

In May of 2016, a site plan was developed for Alpine Lakes. Simon said they had four different rough drafts of what the field might look like. The first draft included modified soccer fields, tennis courts and a full sized football field. There were also backstops for tee-ball baseball.

Then, a swale or retention pond was added to the play field area.

“That threw a wrench in the design and we didn’t have as much space. We then went to this design which was pretty much a final product,” Simon said. “We have a one percent grade that flows with the way it is naturally flowing. We can fit two new fields where the tennis courts would have been.”

It was decided to move the tennis courts to Osborn fields. Those are expected to be constructed sometime this spring or summer. Simon said they are hoping to use the construction equipment on site at the elementary school, which would save a lot of money.

“It is a full sized football field. There are four mod-fields (soccer) that could go there. In the fall, ideally, we would still be at IRMS. The football field will be there in the fall. We would have tee-ball that could be there and coach-pitch. It’s all working out well right now with IRMS,”

At IRMS, Simon said they have tee-ball on Mondays and Wednesdays, coach-pitch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Soccer is not there on Tuesday and Thursday because they don’t wear helmets. Soccer is there Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Board president Carrie Sorensen asked why the soccer players can’t use the fields the same time as the baseball players.

“We don’t have helmets. The city has not granted us access to Enchantment in the spring. The helmets are for liability for baseballs flying,” Simon said.

Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker asked if there was a safety concern having backstops in the corners of the football field. Simon said no has ever brought that up before.

“There’s been times where the middle school has had to play games on the practice field. It’s rare over the past 20 years, but it has happened once or twice. Backstops can be portable and movable,” said CHS Principal Elia Ala’ilima-Daley.

The landscape architect specializes in backstops, Simon said. It is a permanent backstop. The only way it would work would be no backstops, Simon said. Motsenbocker asked if those backstops are necessary.

“You would have to talk to baseball about that, Todd McDevitt. I think they are important. Youth baseball is growing in the area,” Simon said.

Daley said they do practice at IRMS, where there are backstops. He said they just work around them. If there was a game, it would be a concern, but that has only happened twice in 20 years.

In the bottom right hand corner of the design, Simon said there is a big rock there. He said they could fit two modified soccer fields or provide storage for football gear.

“With soccer growing, any field space we can get would be great. It is considered a storage area right now,” Simon said. “For those fall season, more than 350 kids in Leavenworth Soccer Club represent over 60 percent of kids K-5 in the school district. Without extra field space, the lack of practice field availability will become more and more of an issue as sports programs grow. The net gain in field space at Alpine Lakes would remedy this and is critical in facilitating the possibility of a middle school soccer program next spring.”

The school district is interested in maintaining the program at Osborn, which includes backstops, Motsenbocker said.

“If there is any way to put in a portable or movable backstop, so we don’t have that problem. I think that would be a good idea,” Motsenbocker said. “I’m a little surprised the architect designed it like that, in terms of the liability with the backstops there.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

 

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