Bainbridge Island Youth Soccer Club

Fieldturf, Atlas Track & Tennis, and Premier Fields have given the Parks Department a firm bid of $1,438,894 to renovate Battle Point Park fields #4 and #5. This bid includes sales tax but excludes the cost to install a perimeter fence and handicapped-accessible pathways, which will add approximately $50,000 more to the total amount. That means we are looking at a total approximate cost of just under $1,490,000 based on this current bid. As you may recall, the City of Bainbridge Island has allocated $300,000 in its current 2008 budget to help fund this field renovation project. That funding, together with the funds raised by BIYSC and pre-existing bond funding provided by the Parks, total $1,414,850. Our current shortfall, therefore, between the current cost estimate and the anticipated funding, is just under $75,000. While a variety of factors could impact this figure, we are hopeful that we may be close to reaching our funding goals.

 

As noted above, thanks to your advocacy, the $300,000 from the City of Bainbridge Island is still in the 2008 budget. However, to transfer the funds from the City to the Parks, the two entities have to sign an Inter-Local Agreement. The Parks and the City are currently working through the details of that Inter-Local Agreement. The Inter-Local Agreement should be on the City Council agenda in September. We will need your advocacy again (your emails and coming to the meeting) at that time. 

 

Permit status 

The Parks applied for a Grade and Fill permit for the field renovation on November 28, 2007. On June 14, 2008, after more than 6 months of review, the City of Bainbridge Island issued an initial Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) on the Parks’ permit application. On July 12, 2008 the City withdrew its initial MDNS and reissued it with additional conditions. BIYSC has appealed the City’s re-issued MDNS because we believe at least one of the newly imposed conditions is inconsistent with applicable law. We have requested an expedited hearing. 

 

Initiative status 

The media spent a lot of time covering a voter initiative to outlaw artificial surface fields on Bainbridge Island and to impose a sales tax to raise funds for grass fields. The City Attorney determined in July that the initiative petition was not valid and could not be submitted to the voters at the November election. The issue went in front of the City Council in August. The City Council decided that the High School field and the Fields For Our Future field would be grandfathered in, even if the petition went through.