Friends of Athletic Fields (FAF) is busy keeping up with the many activities and meetings associated with active recreational facilities around the Puget Sound region and state-wide. Here are some of the issues that have been our recent focus:

Magnuson Park Strategic Development Plan 2012: Several sports leagues attended the workshop held on Saturday February 11th at the Brig - thanks for showing up. Our voices need to be heard as the first draft plan will generated by March 15th - only one month away! That means our input is needed NOW to be included. The old buildings are in bad shape with no funding for developing them or even keeping them from falling apart. Parks and other interested parties are very focused on addressing the buildings, which is understandable, but they appear to think athletic fields are done or are a lower priority. Let them know that we want the rest of the sportsfields built that were already approved by the Mayor and City Council in the Magnuson Park Master Plan back in 2004. See Current Issues for all of FAF's Magnuson priorities. Ultimately it all comes down to funding so we should be willing to work with all partners to  help with fundraising, bring in grants and other funding sources.

Seattle Parks Dept is now accepting public input through Friday, March 2; use the workshop comment form, available online at: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/magnuson/docs/comment_form.docx

Parks & Green Spaces Levy Opportunity Fund 2012!!  The P&GS Levy Oversight Committee began discussions at their September meeting about implementation of the next round of the Opportunity Fund in 2012 (currently not documented on the web). They are revising the "Green" selection criteria - more info here: Seattle Parks & Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee. If you have an athletic field upgrade project in the works or been thinking about it and want funding, NOW is the time to move things forward. Initial letters of interest will be due Spring 2012(?).

Seattle Budget: We did not hear about any major changes or fee increases for 2012 - thankfully. There are more budget cuts ($40 million?!?) looming. Let us know if we missed anything or issues worth noting.

Everything here: http://www.seattle.gov/council/budget/

We are going to work with City Council this year to push for legislation to have any fee increases implemented later in the year so that leagues have time to adapt. Good idea?

Seattle City Council Elections: The incumbents won: CMs Sally Clark, Jean Godden, Bruce Harrell, Tim Burgess, and Tom Rasmussen. Sally Bagshaw remains as chair of the Parks & (now) Neighborhoods Committee with Jean Godden moving up to vice chair, Tom Rasmussen remaining, and Richard Conlin added as alternate. Congratulations all.

Seattle Parks Funding Options: The Seattle Parks Foundation issued a report in 2011 called Sustaining Seattle Parks on possible future funding options for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. They have been following up that effort working on final recommendations; hoping to be issued by the end of 2011. Given the recent downturn in the economy and the low priority that parks departments typically receive from government, some greater assurance is needed that parks will have the ongoing funding for proper care. Rumor is that SPF has come out recommending implementing a "Metropolitan Parks District"; stay tuned for more.

SPF Survey here: http://www.seattleparksfoundation.org/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Field Construction Project Updates:

• Maple Leaf Reservoir Lid Design. Construction of the buried reservoir is ongoing with the lid now being covered with soil. Field users' priorities were demoted in the design process but we pushed for several improvements to be included as bid alternates, including irrigation for the former SPU field, other baseball field improvements, and removal of one sidewalk to provide more field space. FAF is not happy with how the Parks Department implemented the public process that addressed the entire park site but then withdrew support for sportsfields improvements in order to focus dollars on the lid - understandable but NOT how the public process was conducted.

The last Maple Leaf Reservoir Lid design meeting was held on June 16, 2010 with presentation of the preferred concept that includes a large open grass meadow on top of the lid and improvements to the existing athletic fields on the south side. Good summary of the process and concepts at the Maple Leaf Community Council website: Maple Leaf CC Reservoir Lid Design Concepts.

• West Seattle Reservoir Lid (Westcrest Park) Design. Construction of the buried reservoir is ongoing with major progress. The last West Seattle Reservoir Lid design meeting was held on June 26, 2010 with presentation of the preferred concept that includes a large open grass meadow on top of the lid. Construction to be complete June 2013. Feel free to provide any feedback to Parks' project manager Virginia Hassinger (virginia.hassinger@seattle.gov).

• Jefferson Playfield Upgrade, Beacon Hill

  Jefferson Playfield adjacent to Asa Mercer Middle School is being upgraded as part of Jefferson Park Phase 2 to include synthetic turf and lights. Construction is almost complete as of February 2012. This multi-use field will accommodate soccer, football, ultimate, lacrosse, and baseball and include a track along the west side. This improvement project providing for year-round play on a high quality surface will be a major benefit to the Beacon Hill community.

We are active in many community and municipal organizations including Seattle Parks' Sportsfield Review Committee (SRC), Seattle Sports Advisory Council (SSAC), and the Parks Levy Oversight Committee. We do all this while endeavoring to keep up with our own sports activities both as players and coaches. Please take whatever time you can to join us in helping the active recreation community improve the quality and quantity of the athletic fields available to both youth and adults. Feel free to contact us via email if you have any questions or want to become more involved.

Check out the Current Issues page for the latest news.

(last updated February 16, 2012)