Community Services Department Director Brian Brogan discusses the ballfield assessment Tuesday night with Los Alamos County Council. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.comBy KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
To meet multiple users’ needs on the County ballfields, moveable fencing may be the answer, according to an assessment the Parks and Recreation Board conducted.
Community Service Department Director Brian Brogan and Parks and Recreation Board Chair Stephanie Nakhleh presented the assessment during the regular Los Alamos County Council meeting Tuesday night in Council Chambers.
According to the presentation, last year Council tasked the board with evaluating three issues: lighting, facility uses and softball and baseball capacity needs.
Through onsite workshops and field user meetings, it was reported capacity and lighting needs are being met. However, several recommendations were offered to meet the needs of the multiple organizations that utilize the ballfields.
These recommendations include:
- Moveable outfield fencing;
- Portable pitching mounds;
- Scheduling to match actual usage; and
- Field rotation options for turf regeneration.
Councilor James Chrobocinski asked for details on the moveable fencing. Brogan said it would be $26,000 per field or 34 panels. One field in Overlook Park and one field on North Mesa are being considered for the fencing.
Chrobocinski also asked about the possibility of installing artificial turf. He pointed out for Little League, participants are itching to get out onto the fields since across the state Little League associations have already started but locally, the season will not begin until April. The answer, Chrobocinski said, seems to be artificial turf. He asked what the cost of the turf would be and if there would be any cost savings with the need to mow, weed and chase away gophers removed.
Brogan estimated the initial cost would be $720,000 to $900,000 per field to convert the fields to artificial turf. He added he was not comfortable giving out a number for cost of ownership at this time and said he is working on the cost to maintain grass on the fields.
Chrobocinski also asked how it was concluded the needs for lighting were being met. Brogan said the conclusion was based on the current schedule for the fields although he said any large tournaments or increase use by teams would strain the system. Brogan added it would cost about $300,000 per field to add lighting.
Councilor Susan O’Leary said, “I think it is really terrific that you worked more deliberately with the schedule in order to make sure everyone was accommodated.” She asked if it was a real effort for staff to achieve that or was something done differently.
Brogan said his staff did a great job working together on the schedule and sorting it out, adding, “the credit goes to the user groups”
O’Leary also asked about the overall condition of the fields.
Brogan said, “Each one is unique. They all have their own characteristics. So we have detailed each one and that’s where we’ve come up with our list of improvements that we’re working on … A lot of them have turf needs, some have irrigation needs, they all have gopher needs, some have lighting needs potentially in the future, backstop needs and bleacher needs-stuff like that.”
He added, “It’s a great field system that we have here for a town this size; it’s fantastic. Is there room for improvement, sure.”
O’Leary wondered what is being done to address improvements and how would it be communicated to the public and the council.
Brogan said the Parks and Recreation Board is addressing the improvements and there would be public meetings.
Councilor Antonio Maggiore asked if the existing lighting had been reviewed and if it was fully functional. He said he receives constant complaints about how hard is it to change burnt out lightbulbs at the ball fields.
Brogan said that is part of the ongoing maintenance at the ball fields and if there is a problem, staff wants to know about it so it can be immediately fixed. He added during the onsite workshops, each field was reviewed and the lighting was not brought up but he would look into it.
The issue of lighting came up again during public comment. Frank Montoya, a board member for adult softball league, said the league has had a healthy increase in membership. The organization has more than 400 members, Montoya reported. Being able to host different tournaments, for instance, the state tournament, has been issue due to the lack of lodging in town and the lighting at the fields, he said.
Chrobocinski commended Brogan and his staff for their work.
“I just want to applaud Brian and his staff and Chris (Wilson) for the improvements we’ve seen over the last about three years. Every year we have just seen vast improvements out there … our infields are in excellent conditions,” he said. “The staff is dedicated. The challenges we usually have are in Overlook Park, we’re just battling those gophers; it is an ongoing nightmare but at least we are allowed to fight them here …”
Chrobocinski said what he felt was needed was more park maintenance workers.
“One of the biggest problems I see we have here in the season is just having the park staff available (or) enough park staff available to maintain them,” he said. “On North Mesa it’s constant, almost a battle, between maintaining the arena and horse stables area and the ballfields. Especially during the baseball season … it’s a real challenge when they are pulled away quite often. It been pretty obvious to me for quite some time that they do need additional staff within the parks department (specifically) in the maintenance crews … I hope as we go forward, if the budget allows, that some point during this year that we can consider increasing the parks maintenance staff budget by a FTE or two.”