16 replies to this topic

[CoachWeise]

Hi All,

As you may recall from a previous post of mine I’m an assistant coach and an assistant on the Board of Directors for the Folsom Youth Football and Cheer program... I’m also a resident within Willow Springs. This is the football and cheer program that practices and plays at Livermore Field.

As a resident I do read what is said in this forum occasionally but I also know that little can be said that would appease everyone so I don’t post much. In one of the previous threads it was mentioned that it might help if we let everyone know when we will be having events out at the field, so I wanted to post a message letting you know the following events have been scheduled. If anything changes I’ll post updates to this thread and bump it.

5 Major events (football games, cheerleading, music, announcing, and lots of people with the first game at 10am and the last game starting around 6pm --- ending around 8pm): Sep 18, Sep 25, Oct 2 and Oct 9 and a playoff game on Nov 13. We tried to get the playoff game at the high school but a CIF tournament has been scheduled so we couldn’t play there.

On Fri Aug 20 we will have an opening night with our teams/parents only. This will include some announcements and possibly some music and should conclude by 9pm.

We will start practices on July 26 from 4:30pm – 8:30pm. When needed the lights will come on but there will be no music/announcing and the lights should be off by 9pm. We will also be using the field on MWF from 6 – 7:30pm for the two weeks prior to the start of practices for camps --- again, with no announcing or music.

Prior to the start of practices (around July 25) and before each home game, usually the day before, we will stripe the field. We make every effort to start as early as possible and to end by 9pm. There is no announcing and we will only use the lights if we need them.

We will also most likely have either a day or evening when we test the audio equipment. This would not take long and would occur prior to Aug 20. This will most likely occur around 5pm during the week while we are out at the field already for a practice.

Okay, so that’s the schedule… I hope this might help a little. We will be making every effort that we are allowed to make to get people to park in the dirt area and not on the streets.

Coach Weise

[CoachWeise]

Hi Again,

Since there have been several threads with different topics regarding the use of the livermore field and other items for the football program I wanted to take a moment to respond --- not as a board member since these are not my areas of responsibility, but more as a resident in the know...

So I’ll take my board/coach hat off for a moment and respond to some of the issues that came up in earlier threads from my personal point of view. I’m just going add my comments here, but I will not continue to respond since this will most likely just go back and forth with no resolution.

Regarding the middle school… From my understanding (but I could be wrong here) each organization that utilizes the fields pay into the Adopt-A-Field program to help maintain the fields throughout the city. I do know that another organization within the city utilizes and pays into Adopt-A-Field for the middle school field. There are probably other reasons that I don’t know of that we do not use middle school field. To my knowledge, the youth football field at Livermore Park was developed with its current use in mind (with all of the equipment, etc). When I was considering my move into the Willow Springs neighborhood (if I recall I this was in 1997 or 1998) I saw the master plan for the area and talked with the Forecast representatives about the plans and at that time I was told it is a fully functional youth football field. To me that meant lights, concessions, announcing and everything else that would go along with youth football so I was not surprised to find the activity happening at the field. At that time I was not involved with the program nor had I been involved with other football programs --- again, this is just my personal view though and things that I’ve heard but not confirmed.

I can also say that there are at least 10 kids (possibly more since I don’t know all of the kids) in the Willow Springs neighborhood that do participate in football/cheer, so this does involve several kids in the community… Not that this matters, but it was mentioned in another thread, so I answer that here.

Regarding doing better traffic control and blocking the residence areas to force more people into the dirt lot… From what I understand this did come up as a topic with the city in the past and we were instructed not to do it due to the liability and possibly other reasons. We do tell all of our parents that need to drop off/pick up and not use driveways, etc… We will be making every effort we are allowed to make to have people park in the dirt lot.

As to the football program making money, the answer to that is to let you know that we are a non-profit organization. Anything that we take in through gate fees, concessions, registration, etc goes directly into the program. None of us are paid out there or receive any benefit other than the joy of working with the kids and participating in football/cheer. We do provide scholarships to players/cheerleaders that cannot afford to pay (in conjunction with the Folsom Athletic Association) and pay into the Adopt-A-Field program and more. This is where the money goes, directly to the kids and the program.

Finally, for who “dave” is… Personally, I don’t know. There is only 1 Dave (assuming that “dave” is his real name) that is directly involved with the football program as a coach/board member and I’m sure that this is not him. “dave” appears to know a lot about what is happening at the city level, perhaps he works with the city, or perhaps he’s just someone who knows what’s going on. He does have a lot of information about the football program, too, and is correct with most of what he has been saying (e.g., we had an unusual amount of events last year --- 7, etc). So while I am confident that “dave” is not directly involved with the football program, I am not sure who he is and what he does.

Okay, so this ends my personal comments as a resident, not as board member/coach… I'm not sure if this will help or not, but with helpful intentions that I post this so I hope it does.

As I mentioned I will not be responding unless I have an update to make to the schedule.

Coach Weise.

[NRB]

Thank you for the info. I was surprised to see the new landscaping along the street. I think a better idea would have been to recess the area and make room for some on street parking to help alleviate the need to park in front of residents homes!

[dave]

Dave is Dave Stanley.

I'm on the Parks and Recreation Commission. We are essentially the parks and rec arm of the City Council.

We meet the first Tuesday of the month at 7 pm in the City Council chambers.

We look at issues such as what parks to build and where, what facilities to include in them, fees, etc.

Most importantly, we try to figure out how many cars can fit in Parklady's driveway. Ok, just kidding.

[ckc]

CoachWeise - Thanks for the info. Its good to hear some facts regarding the use of the field. Good luck with the program.

[parklady]

Dave - Very funny, but honestly, as a public official, you should know more appropriate ways of conducting yourself. And as a Parks and Rec. Commissioner, what are you and your commission doing to mitigate the traffic, parking and safety issues created by your decisions regarding Livermore Park? Oh and by the way daddy - where are we going when you drag those 3-5,000 people through Willow Springs on these 5 or more game days? I've got my bag packed and my teddy bear is ready.

[parklady]

Coach Weise - I appreciate you taking time to write on your separate roles and viewpoints as a member and resident. If executed as you describe, there may be some minimal improvement in the ligting schedules, i.e., avoiding late night lights blaring directly into back and front yards. I would offer the following suggestions. I believe that the field is light polluted and could operate safely on reduced lighting. I would also suggest that the audio be experimented with - it really doesn't need to be that loud - the bass is enough to drive one crazy. It reverberates through our homes even with the windows closed! I remain concerned and still don't understand why the league and parks officials can't control the traffic safety and parking, especially with the available land. I believe that measures can be taken to control no parking near the field so that people may find it just as attractive to park in the field. In fact they should be required to pay for parking and not help themselves to residential parking all day. (Seriously, as you know, they do take every square inch of parking in this subdivision when these events are on.) Yes, it would take some work on the part of the city, but it is the right thing to do. As for liability, you've hit the nail on the head-they would rather push that onto the homeowners. The Livermore football field is still a very inadequate, unsecure sight in terms of safety and the school site remains more secure with lots more parking on site. Again, I don't hear a reason why the use of the school field was discontinued and according to the parents, it is by preference and by arrangement of the league itself. Therefore, you must take the responsibility for this site and its effects on the residences. Your leage in conjunction with the Parks and Rec Dept. must bear the liability. As for the money, I realize you are non-profit, but charging $5.00 per head for your cause while inconvenienving 400+ residences just to use a field of your choice is out of line. From my observations of all park and rec events throughout the city's parks, Livermore Park has the worse impacts to the residences from your football events. Recently, there has been more activity with softball and more people using the blacktop parking area for those events, thereby possibly reducing parking for football practices or games should there be simultaneous events. Again, this is only one event, among many others that could potentially exist at this site at buildout. There has also been talk about a private school enterprise on the site, which was not part of the park master plan. This would take land away from needed parking. I don't doubt there are some kids in the neighborhood that participate in the leaque. But from what I can tell, these thousands of kids and parents are not all from Willow Springs, nor are they from Folsom. They come from towns far and wide - down to even the Bay Area. So again, your event structure with its growing numbers of people and cars, noise, lighting and carnival concessions are the cause for our inconvenience and displeasure.

[parklady]

NRB - I agree with your comment regarding the recent landscaping in the sidewalk area near the field. The project was obviously very low budget and the grass from seed/weed looks bad. It will only be trod on by players and their family and end up looking worse. A better application would have been to recess the area into the field and create a drop off to the field which would stop the congestion and the double parking in front of the field, as well as the usage of residential driveways, and would help encourage parking into the remaining land of the park. Again, no real efforts on the part of parks or the league to make this a tenable situation, just fluff.

[anonymous]

Parklady, lets admit that no matter what plan anyone came up with as far as the games and activities are concerned you would not be happy. I don't have children who play there but I do live in the neighborhood and your complained have been numerous. If you hate it that bad, instead of being a thorn in everyones side why not consider moving. I am bothered by the noise at times but have to consider that I did move next to a park.

[parklady]

Anonymous - I don't think you can exactly speak for me in terms of how I would react to solutions. The problem is that there have been none offered. There are numerous upset residents in this subdivision (not just one) especially on "event" days. As far as whether I or others would be happy - try us. Move the larger events with thousands of people migrating to our neighborhood, creating parking, traffic and safety issues to a more appropriate, secure site, keep the field for practices and one-on-one games, move the carnivals, tour buses and concessions and I think you would have what most people envisioned when they moved to this subdivision with the field in place. Nice try - it you accuse people of merely complaining just for complaint sake and you want to believe that no solution will work but yours, you relieve yourself of the need for any effort to listen or work with those most affected. That is obviously the opinion of those in charge of this field and these events. They don't care if the neighborhood is inconvenienced or affected, and so it appears you are among them. 200+ concerned residents can't be wrong on this one.

[zach5]

From all this talk, Livermore park didnt sound like a good idea to begin with. Would you rather the park just not be there? In order to have a park, it comes with benifits(ie: athletic fields to play on, park structures, etc) but also inheritly comes with problems to the neighboring residents(ie: the light and noise from the football games). Do you feel that the problems outweigh the benifits of having that park there?

[parklady]

The park is not inherently the real issue. It's the park planning, or lack thereof, and approved usage that is the real problem. As far as football, from a site planning perspective, it certainly isn't suited for a football field; however, it had been there when there was nothing else around and simply got "piggy backed"onto by the league who was looking for a "field of their own" and the Parks Dept. and league worked out a deal in exchange for field maintenance fees. The developer informed buyers that it was only used for practice for a very small league of junior "football (We stood around many times long enough to hear this sales pitch over and over again.) Of course at that time, there were no lights, no loud speakers, no snack shack. etc. - just a grass field with minimal bleachers. All the expansion has occurred after the residential development with no concern or accommodations for the surrounding homes and residents. I don't think residents mind the practices or one-on-one games, just as the softball games aren't really a problem - it was an expected part of the park But the large events are a huge problem (literally thousands of vehicles and visitors) Check it out come July/August/September/October/November and you will be amazed. No prizes for design there. If appropriately planned, this park could be an enhancement to the neighborhood, as well as a benefit to the residents all of Folsom with less impact to the surrounding neighborhoods.

[zach5]

but, because it was improperly planned, would you rather that it just be gone, for the benefits of peace and quiet?

[parklady]

Zach-
I don't quite understand what you are asking. I don't have any other opinons on it other than to say that it has been designated a park, yes with poor planning - not much chance of it being changed to residential like the surrounding usage, and that as such, the usage of the field needs to be planned appropriately to blend with the residential usage that is in such close proximity - i.e., move the huge district wide events to the school fields or another location away from the back and front yards of the residences. It just makes sense. Yes, make the huge events with the thousands of people and their cars and carnival concessions and headaches go away - the rest is fine. Parks are not a bad thing, only how people choose to use them.

[CoachWeise]

Hi all,

I hope this season has been better for everyone so far... We're making an effort to get people to park in the dirt parking lot, but we are limited in how much we can force it.

We have 1 more event left, the playoffs on November 13. The times have changed for the games, we normally start the games at 10am and the last one starts at 6pm (concluding around 8pm)... For the playoffs we'll be starting an hour earlier (and therefore ending an hour earlier) going from 9am for the first game to a 5pm start time for the last game.

Coach Weise.