Youth Sport Groups Push for Parks

With Anne Arundel County set to map out a long-term plans for its open space and recreation areas, local residents involved in youth sports in Odenton, Severn and Crofton said they’d like to see more fields, more lights and more indoor facilities.

During a public hearing Tuesday with officials from the Department of Recreation and Parks, commissioners from all the major athletic councils in the area asked that the county find a way to ease the pressure on ball fields and parks that are filled to capacity.

Residents spoke at Arundel High School during the first of four public hearings to generate suggestions for the 2012 Land Preservation Parks and Recreation Plan, designed to map out the county’s open space needs over the next 20 years. Tuesday’s meeting focused on the western part of the county.

Nearly all of the residents who testified were involved in a local sports organization either as a commissioner, coach or parent. Representatives of the Severn Athletic Council, Gambrills-Odenton Recreation Council and Crofton Athletic Council all spoke.

Among their key requests:

-More Fields. Commissioners and coaches of local sports teams all agreed they’d like to see more space set aside for games and practices. Geoffrey Bobersky of the Severn Athletic Club said the outfields of the baseball fields at Severn Danza Park are often used for football. He said the fields there get very little time to recover from the beating of athletic events.

“With inevitable overuse, our teams play on dust bowls when it’s dry and mud pits when it’s wet,” Bobersky said.

-Artificial Turf Fields. While commissioners acknowledged that artificial turf presents a greater up-front cost, they said it would cut down on mowing and other maintenance, while also being safer.

-Permanent Lights. Sports league representatives said permanent lights at recreation fields would allow for more games and practices, and thus allow more kids to play. It could also save the organizations money. Crofton Athletic Council President Phil Rollison said his organization spends $30,000 each year on temporary lights.

-A Home Field For Arundel Soccer. The Arundel Soccer Association (ASA), which has 128 teams and more than 1,500 players, does not have a permanent home field. Rather, it plays games and practices at 13 different fields in the county, most of them owned by the school system. ASA President John Hamrick requested that the county allow the group to use the Schillinger Farm property in Millersville as the main headquarters for ASA. Hamrick said the land, which is owned by the county, could accommodate as many as six soccer fields.

"That site would be perfect to be our house, and we're willing to help [the county] out," Hamrick said.

-Indoor Recreation Facilities. Dawn Cooper of Severn Community in Action said her group is hoping to use land near Van Bokkelen Elementary School for a public recreation center. Rollison, of the Crofton Athletic Council, also said a robust indoor athletic complex in West Anne Arundel County would be well-received.

-More Maintenance. Commissioners and coaches said that new funds for recreation will be scarce until the economy improves. So they did emphasize that resources should be spent on general maintenance of existing facilities.

Rick Anthony, the director of recreation and parks, said he was pleased to see sports leagues represented, because they had been relatively silent in past planning efforts.

“Tonight, they seemed to be unified and were speaking with a louder voice,” he said. “For the most part, the things they said didn’t surprise us. We really are aware of the issues we face.”

Anthony said the requests were reasonable ones, but acknowledged that a tight county budget will mean there is competition for every dollar.

“We’re still in the woods when it comes to the budget,” he said. “The question is, how much will it be, and how much will be allocated to rec and parks? Everybody has needs, and it’s just a matter of prioritizing.”

County officials also Tuesday night updated residents on a number of long-range open space projects. Officials said finding funding to complete a regional park at the former Navy Dairy Farm in Gambrills is a top priority, along with the completion of the South Shore Trail from Odenton to Annapolis. They also said the State Highway Administration has planned a 10-foot trail alongside the expansion of Route 175 between Rockenbach Road and Mapes Road near Fort Meade. 

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Tuesday's meeting was the first of four designed to seek feedback from residents on the long-range plan for open space and parks in the county. Here's the schedule for the next three meetings:

Oct. 26, Southern Planning Area. Cafeteria. 7 p.m.

Nov. 2. Eastern Planning Area. Cafeteria. 7 p.m.

Nov. 9. Northern Planning Area. 7 p.m.