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Department of Parks and Recreation
Reference: Review Master Plan for the Water Tower Park Turf Conversion
To: Mayor Richard N. McLean and Members of City Council
Through: Clint Blackhurst, Acting City Manager
Chontel Trujillo, Assistant City Manager Operations
Prepared By: Gary Wardle, Director Parks and Recreation
Date Prepared: August 15, 2017
PURPOSE
Review the Mater Plan for the Water Tower Park Turf Conversion.
BACKGROUND
As the City increases in population the need for youth sports fields is increasing. To accommodate the increase need for soccer fields and football fields it is recommended that the fields at Water Tower Park be converted from natural turf grass to artificial turf.
Currently soccer is being played at Donelson Park. With the amount of play, staff is not able to keep the fields in good playing condition. The turf is warn after each season. There are two seasons per year on the fields. The only rest the field get is during the winter when the grass is dormant. The only time for the turf to recover is to move the soccer games to Water Tower Park in the spring.
The turf at Water Tower Park is heavily used for football during the fall. We can rejuvenate the turf at Water Tower Park if we do not use the field for spring soccer. Currently the only way to provide safe fields is to have seasonal closure of the Donelson Park fields. This will not allow the recovery of the turf at Water Tower Park. Converting the Water Tower field to artificial turf is the only way to provide safe playing fields with the limited fields we have in the City. The artificial turf field will allow the City to extend the regular season and host end of season tournaments. This will bring additional persons into the City. The regularly scheduled games can be held during inclement weather to reduce the need of rescheduling games.
The conversion of the field to artificial turf will reduce the irrigation needs. There will still be a need for irri...
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