06-23-1993 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor & City Council March 16, 1993 Page 9 It has always been my contention that approximately the same parking demand is generated by either youth or adults, and as attested to by Jim Olson at the City Council meeting of February 24, 1993, he feels that possibly more demand is created from youth use. Adult and children demands for our most desireable fields have existed for years. Before Pioneer Park, all teams wanted to play on Gilbertson (Field E -1). In response to that demand, I initiated a schedule of Gilbertson Field that allowed use by everyone involved. On the nights when conflicting demand existed (M,Tu,W,Th), I split up the use by scheduling it one night each for all four requesting parties (girls, boys, women, and men). Over the past ten years or so, this method of scheduling has been one that has proven to be as fair as possible and very well accepted by all involved. Since development of Pioneer Park, the same popularity for those fields now exists. Last year I initiated the same balance of that complex between children and adults. The demand for facilities by both children and adults is growing in our community. As Parks and Recreation Director, I feel it is my job to respond to these needs. The needs and demands of adults for ball fields are just as important as that of the children (and just as prevelant). Although the number of resident adults last season was approximately 18% of the total number of adult ball players, our residents needs were met very well. Fifty percent of all sponsors were resident businesses, and of the remaining 82% of players, a good percentage of those work for various City businesses. Another consideration is that Little Canada does not have enough residents in any of the adult softball classifications to conduct a league on their own. The resident ball players in Little Canada need non - residents to make leagues possible. I feel that the shortage of parking that existed at Pioneer Park last season was a minor problem. After notifying all teams involved when the problem surfaced during the first few weeks of play, and after prohibiting parking on Centerville Road, there were very few times that street parking on Desoto existed. While I feel the need for adult parking at the facility is evident for future maximization of the park, I am confident that we could get by for one more year without changing programming from last year. To try to reschedule games to other fields because of the relatively insignificant problems of last year would create more imbalance and more scheduling conflicts than it would eliminate. Page 78