Fields of Dreams

By TIM HIRSCH
of the Sun

The first two phases of a seven-year dream of bringing first-class soccer, baseball and softball fields to the Nestucca Valley School District has come to fruition.

The district began welcoming students — during physical education classes and recess — to a 12 and under regulation soccer field on the new Nestucca Valley Elementary School campus. As well, as of press time, there only remained finishing touches for a collegiate-sized (and OSAA approved) baseball field and OSAA softball field. Both of the ball fields feature artificial turf infields.

“It’s really come a long ways from (what artificial turf used to be like),” NVSD Superintendent Misty Wharton told the Sun. “This is much easier to maintain and replace sections of if need be than the original stuff.”

Taken together, the three fields cost the district approximately $2 million though that figure also includes some preliminary work for an upcoming playground, walking/running/mountain bike path, and little league softball and baseball fields. The bulk of the funds — about $1.6 million — came from the district’s general fund and the balance from grants. The effort was also helped out by funds from the Nestucca Valley Athletic Supporters, Inc., who paid $67,000 for a preliminary site plan and for the pre-application submittal to Tillamook County Community Development.

Doing the construction work for the fields was Benchmark Construction, who the district was able to employ using a public procurement process that eliminated the necessity of going through the request for proposal and bid processes.

“We got lucky because there was a vacancy in their schedule,” Wharton said about the district’s ability to bring them to the school in time to complete the project by mid-October. “That’s what they do — they do a lot of fields.”

She also said that the new fields have everyone from students to staff excited.

“(The kids) are super excited. Our coaches are super excited. I’m super excited,” Wharton exclaimed. “I feel like it’s a really nice facility for our kids. When you have nice things like this, it makes them proud and then they’re better stewards of it and more responsible with it.”

Next Steps

The district will follow suit with finishing the little league fields, the playground and the walking/running path —the latter of which will eventually serve as a cross country course suitable for hosting meets — using in-kind donations and staff work. Wharton said that work will be done next summer, which will also be the timeframe when the district turns its attention —and dollars —to the high school’s football field and track. There, Wharton said the district will employ Benchmark Construction once again to bring up those facilities to current standards —and improve upon the safety for the students participating in those sports. That effort is expected to cost between $1.6 million and $2 million.

“That will get all our facilities to a safe place,” Wharton said. “Right now our track is in a state that you can’t safely hold meets, and, with the new concussion standards for football, our football field is not the greatest either. These are things that are never going to get cheaper. At some point we’re going to have to do it.”

Photo by Tim Hirsch