Public Works Committee meeting schedule Monday March 10, 2014 at 5:30 pm.
Held just before the regular council meeting so Council can vote on a contracts during the Regular Council meeting. Agenda and read ahead
Come out Monday and hear what could be the last discussion before contract award of the new Thomas Cloud concession stand and restroom. Getting the replacement started certainly needs to happen but I personally have concerns that the Baseball organizations have an expectation that eventually the baseball fields will end up with fences. If this happens then the city would lose 5 to 7 soccer fields at Thomas Cloud and the remaining soccer fields would have difficulty getting to the restroom and concession stand. As much as I want to get the restroom up for this year. I believe it is important to make sure the baseball organizations have the right expectations about fences.
The other issue that will be discussed is who pays the costs above the insurance payout. Back when the city started to plan for replacing the restrooms that burned down the initial thought was to stay within the insurance payout of $180,000 and put it in the same place as where the last one was located. The baseball organizations came to the city and said they would pay the difference between the insurance payout if the city would be willing to move the location to the center of the baseball fields and allow the baseball organizations to design the building.
The building they designed looks like it will cost almost $225,000 just by itself. In addition there is another $100,000 or so in infrastructure costs most of which is associated with moving to the new location. To the baseball organizations credit they have maintained in all public meetings they are willing to fulfill their end of the bargain. However, Mr. Lyons has been arguing for the last couple months that the city should pick up most of the $100,000 of the infrastructure costs (water, sewer, utility and access road). That discussion will be held Monday evening too.
Minutes from the Feb 18, 2014 Public Works Committee meeting can be found here, the topic discussion starts on page 7. A search of the City's Meeting and Agenda page shows discussions started with Brick City BB back in July 17, 2012 (page 5), and zoning changes happened April 22, 2013 as part of a public hearing pg 2 or watch the video discussion starts about 38 minutes into meeting. During the Jan 27, 2014 meeting a number of baseball proponents spoke during citizen comments. There were a couple that mentioned the need for fenced fields. Here is the video with citizen comments on this issue. Discussion starts at about 1 hour 12 Minutes and 40 seconds in.
These pictures show part of a proposal. If I remember correctly some of the land around the park would have to be purchased and that was determined to be too expensive.
Edited
Comments
I still want the Restrooms built at it's original location.
I suggested at the Public Works meeting that the Restrooms area #1 priority and that Huber Heights should look into just building the restrooms and even bigger better restrooms and NO concessions. Let Brick City, HHLL, Rec Soccer, HHYFC, WSC bring in their own concessions. Even if it means City of HH to pass an ordinance to do it. I don't care if it is just a table and tent, If it is a trailer with a generator. Let the sports organizations put their own temporary concessions wherever they seem fit within reasons. Heck bring in these popular food trucks, I know they do fundraising type of stuff.
The bids came in at $351,000 and the Insurance covers $180,000 and that leaves a difference of $171,000. I was going to ask since I couldn't be at that part of the Public Works meeting due to a Soccer commitment, If there was any movement again on the City paying for some of the expenses?
The donation is stated to be about $150,000. We were briefed Tuesday the actual insurance number is $185,000. If the bid remained the same then there is a shortfall.
Since the open bid process did not result in a bid, the City used the option of approaching contractors. The city has the option of trying to negotiate down and value engineering the bids. That is the first option the city has chosen to pursue. I believe there is a decent chance this will be successful.
I made the following Facebook post
Now it appears as if the baseball organizations expects to develop a baseball complex in a way that would significantly and negatively affect the soccer user. I believe that it is important that all users have a realistic expectation on future development.
Offering my opinion; I don't believe the baseball fields as laid out would ever allow for fences, lights, and dug outs. I believe that a baseball complex with fences, lights and dug outs is a good idea. However, if that is the objective then we should put the concession stand on hold and go back to the drawing board and redesign the layout of the park so that the baseball fields and soccer / football practice fields are efficiently laid out to maximize the usage.
I highly recommend that everyone look at the video of the public hearing (discussion starts about 38 minutes into the video. mms://agendaquick.hhoh.org/dcr2/CC042213.wmv
Those of us involved with Little League has said many times why don't you just put the concession back where it was. Everyone got along the way things was in 2010 and 2011 why all the changes.
The city should not have to put up additional money to move a concession stand that is going to cause so much conflict with other user groups within the city.
Every since Brick City has been involved in all this it has been nothing but a big mess.
When writing comments about this leave Little League out of it we don't want to cause soccer to lose any of there fields. We don't want all this conflict. And we don't expect the city to pay for something they shouldn't have to pay for when the city is hurting for money as it is.
The two years that we played all our games at Cloud park we never ask the city for anything except priority use of the fields as our league is for the children of the community of Huber Heights. We maintained the fields and maintained the concession stand sharing with soccer and football and we all got along just fine.
Brick City has a complex on Rip Rap they have always used the fields at shullgate, Cottonwood, and Titus. While Little League shared the fields at Cloud with softball and used the fields at Monita.
Those of us from Little League say put the concession back where it was! STOP ALL THIS MADNESS
Thanks JohnB
My Concerns
At the following meeting the reconfiguration was discussed. It had been determined that only four of the five fields would fit on the north end of the park. Also if the fields were to be moved to that end of the park the dirt to do this would cost too much and Mr Lyons agreed with this. Now I see Mr . Lyons is asking the city to pay for the new infrastructure at a cost of $100,000, but he thought dirt was too expensive. Something seems amiss here!
My thoughts on this; if fences were to be placed on the baseball fields, as they stand now, five to seven soccer fields would be lost. This would mean the end of Huber Height Youth Soccer, the only recreational, non-select, youth soccer in Huber with about 600 kids playing in their organization. They are not part of the Warrior Soccer Club, and have no association with the fields on Rip Rap.
In the past as the park is set up now soccer, baseball, football, softball, and the families wanting to go to the park to use the wide open space have all been able to do so. Building a baseball complex in the middle of the park would end this. Please consider putting the concession stand back in its original location, and also consider using the city's tax dollars for oh, let's say funding the schools.