Playground, parking in Person proposal
COEUR d'ALENE - A playground, parking lot, smart irrigation and revamped restrooms are a sampling of the changes proposed in the master plan for Person Field.
The Coeur d'Alene City Council will vote Sept. 2 on the plan, which has already gained approval from the council's General Services Committee.
City crews are getting ready to prep the site for the first phase of the plan - a new playground, according to interim Parks Director Bill Greenwood. The Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors donated $30,000 earlier this year to purchase the playground equipment.
"It's a really cool thing that they wanted to step up," Greenwood said. "This town blows me away. People just want to pitch in. They donated the money and now we're going to get it done."
Greenwood said the playground has a footprint of 35 feet by 40 feet, and includes a couple of slides, monkey bars and climbing structures. A dedication ceremony is planned for Sept. 20.
The second phase of the master plan would add irrigation to the field, which city crews currently water by hand. Greenwood said he has submitted a budget request of $72,500 to fund installation of the irrigation in the spring of 2015.
"We're dragging hoses to water the field," he said. "We want to do an automated system."
The irrigation system Greenwood is eyeing has an in-field gauge and can detect when the grass needs to be watered. The whole system can be controlled from a laptop computer.
As money is available, the master plan calls for an overhaul of the restroom facilities and the addition of parking.
Recreation Director Steve Anthony said the plan adds a small parking lot on 13th Street and diagonal parking spaces along Garden Avenue.
"The off-street parking is a must and it adds handicapped parking," Anthony said. "Currently there is no handicapped parking."
The city would take over the entire field house, which is currently shared by the Recreation Department and Coeur d'Alene Junior Tackle Football. Anthony said space at the field has been reserved so the football league can build its own storage building.
Under the master plan, the track at Person Field would go from six lanes to three. Residents in the neighborhood, Anthony said, wanted a simple walking track.
The plans were drawn up free of charge by Scott Cranston, a local architect and chairman of the Coeur d'Alene Parks and Recreation Commission.
Two Junior Tackle football fields will remain unchanged and a softball field used by the city's recreation department will also stay.