A series of student presentations and a detailed report from the Fernley Youth Sports League Committee at the Jan. 21 meeting of the Fernley City Council highlighted widespread concerns about the condition of the city’s parks and the need for long-term investment in new facilities. Nearly two dozen students and representatives of various youth leagues who use the parks outlined safety issues, damaged equipment and other concerns such as field maintenance, lack of lighting, limited parking, restroom access and the strain of year-round use on the natural-grass fields.
While the Jan. 21 presentations focused on the athletic fields and the skate park, other residents have also complained about the condition of the dog park at the Green Valley Park.
Gabe Leija of Fernley Youth Softball said Fernley’s youth and adult sports leagues have outgrown the available field space, and because the fields are used in all sports seasons, none of them can be shut down for maintenance.
“We’re at a point where we have to figure out a short-term goal and maybe a long-term goal for our community,” Leija said.
And with the population growing, Leija said there are more kids playing every year, with no new field space being added.
Leija suggested additional lighting on the baseball and softball fields at the Out of Town Park as one short-term solution that would allow the fields to be used in the evenings. He estimated labor costs of $80,000 to $100,000 to add lights to Field 3 at the Out of Town Park, and said there are parents and donors willing to chip in to cover the costs.
Leija also showed pictures of the fields that have patches of dirt in the grass, holes and mounds of dirt dug by ground squirrels. He said Fernley Youth Softball purchased $12,000 in dirt for the In Town Park.
Leija asked for additional funding to be approved to repair the Out of Town Park fields. He said it would cost about $400,000 in materials to resod fields 5, 4, 2 and 1, but said the parents and volunteers are willing to do the labor.
“The people that are behind us are willing to do whatever they have to do to get our fields right for our kids in our community,” he said. “We feel that’s our way to be able to try to help you guys, help out city.”
Leija said the soccer field is probably the worst field of all. It’s currently going through gopher extermination, but it has sections of dirt with no grass and is full of stickers.
“If you roll a ball through there and you pick it up, the kids have sticker burrs all over it,” he said.
He requested the city budget $100,000 for grass for the soccer fields.
“We’re just trying to get the fields back to what we think a standard that is acceptable for our kids and our community,” Leija said.
In all, Leija asked for between $611,000 and $620,000 to be put aside in the budget for the upcoming year.
Roman Sisneros, president of Fernley Youth Football League and vice president of Sagebrush Pop Warner, said the long-term vision of the Fernley Youth Sports League Committee for the city is a multi-sport complex. He said such a facility would bring tournaments to Fernley and make money for the city.
“Anything you can think of, if we had a facility, we could pull off,” Sisneros said.
Jamie Sisneros, secretary of Fernley Youth Football League, proposed a funding mix of city investment with state recreation grants, corporate sponsorships and field naming rights to pay for such a facility.
“The economic impact could be phenomenal for Fernley,” she said. “I think we could probably put tournaments or have some kind of activity every weekend of the year once it’s built out.”
She said Sparks brings in more than $23 million per year from its Golden Eagle Sports Complex.
Jamie Sisneros asked the council to direct staff to identify land and obtain design and project estimates, allocate the initial funding through budget processing and partner with the committee to find grants and sponsorships.
Councilman Stan Lau said he would like to see the council look for possible areas for a sports complex, but in the meantime, get the existing fields fixed.
Councilwoman Felicity Zoberski asked how much developers pay per house toward parks.
Planning Director Michelle Rambo said it’s $1,000 per unit, but that only goes to parks that are in the master plan and only in residential areas. She said the city is looking at a broader parks fee as part of the impact fee study currently underway.
She also said a new parks element will be added to the master plan, so additional park space could be included.
Councilman Joe Mendoza asked if there is a line item in the budget that shows how much tax money has been collected for parks.
Treasurer Robert Carson said the city has $150,000 in revenue budgeted this year and, to date, has collected $66,000 of that.
Mendoza also asked how much would be left when the final costs for the Community Response and Resource Center are closed out.
Carson said the city will probably have about $600,000 left over and the council could augment the budget to move those funds for another use once the final invoices from the CRRC are cleared.
Mendoza said he fully supports the idea of a sporting complex. He said last season, Fernley Youth Football teams played home games at Golden Eagle.
“That’s an issue,” he said, adding that even Golden Eagle was over capacity for parking and field availability.
“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right and do it big,” he said.
Mendoza also said he will be proposing a new city Parks and Recreation Department during the council’s next priorities meeting.
“We can’t put everything on Public Works’ lap, and we need people that are going to be dedicated to the park and recreations of Fernley,” he said.
Ultimately, all five council members and Mayor Neal McIntyre agreed that fixing the parks is an immediate priority and that they support a sports complex as a longer-range project.
“It sounds like everybody sitting up here, including myself, are all about fixing the parks,” McIntyre said. “We heard you loud and clear and now we’ll just get to work and make it happen.”
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