SALMON CREEK — Grass is a problem for the Salmon Creek Soccer Club.
The club ships players off to synthetic fields in Washougal, Battle Ground and Delta Park during Vancouver’s rainy months to prevent their facilities from turning into a muddy mess.
But they have a plan: Ditch natural turf for the artificial variety.
The club has a complete design and all of the necessary county building permits to install a lighted, synthetic turf field at H.B. Fuller Park. They hope to break ground on the project, which will cost somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000, next August.
o Where: Salmon Creek area at Northwest 139th Street and Second Avenue.
o Size: 20 acres.
o Owner: H.B. Fuller Co. — Adalis, a division of the company, operates in a building on the south end of the site.
o Leased by: Hazel Dell Little League, Salmon Creek Soccer Club and Clark County.
o Where: Salmon Creek area at Northwest 139th Street and Second Avenue.
o Size: 20 acres.
o Owner: H.B. Fuller Co. -- Adalis, a division of the company, operates in a building on the south end of the site.
o Leased by: Hazel Dell Little League, Salmon Creek Soccer Club and Clark County.
The field will also include lighting, bleachers and concessions. The two latter features might be cut to save costs, Harshbarger said.
The field will also include lighting, bleachers and concessions. The two latter features might be cut to save costs, Harshbarger said.
“It will be a great asset to get the kids out of the mud and onto a field they can play in all year long,” said John Harshbarger, who is supervising field selection for the club.
The new field will be water permeable and should feel about as close to natural as possible, Harshbarger said. The grass won’t look like a “loose carpet” or be made of abrasive green blades; it will “feel more like natural turf when you step on it instead of spongy or hard,” he said.
Building the full regulation-sized field will push the park’s trail somewhere between 20 and 60 feet into a wooded area, according to plans given to The Columbian.
Salmon Creek Soccer Club president Robin Grove said the new trail will be slightly wooded and include lighting for safety.
The club’s plan seems to have earned praise from other users of the privately owned park.
“Improvements are good for the park,” said Bob Whareham, who lives down the street and walks at the park every morning with his wife, Verdella, and his 8 year-old yellow lab, Nyse. “They’ve done a great job maintaining it (the park) over the years.”
Although the Wharehams weren’t familiar with the soccer clubs plans, they said they quickly understood the benefits of the new field. The two had kids who played soccer and know how the field “gets really muddy in the winter,” they said.
Sonny Patel, president of the Hazel Dell Little League, which leases the ball fields, said the league supports the project but wants to work out a few minor details — mostly regarding the field’s construction — before giving the final approval.
Patel said he wants to make sure construction vehicles don’t use a path near the little league’s batting cages that isn’t designed to support heavy trucks, he said. The original plan also called for the removal of too many trees, he said.
The soccer club seems to be on the same page as Patel.
The initial plans called for the removal of 28 trees. The club has reworked the plans to take out only nine, club representative Harshbarger said.
They will plant 18 new trees after construction but haven’t determined what kind yet, club president Grove said.
“I can’t very well cut trees down, then not put them back,” Harshbarger said. “You’ll upset people. It’s not just the community; I like the trees, too.”
Salmon Creek Soccer also got clearance from Adalis — a division of H.B. Fuller Co., which operates on the property — to use its access road and a grassy area outside the park to stage construction, Grove said. They won’t be using the little league’s pathway.
A path between the two baseball fields will also be paved over to make it ADA accessible and prevent soccer players from tracking gravel onto the new field, Harshbarger said.
Salmon Creek Soccer hopes other clubs and schools, including nearby Skyview High School and Alki Middle School, can benefit from the field, too, Grove said.
Field lighting will play an important role in attracting other groups, Harshbarger said. It’s necessary for play in the winter afternoons and evenings, but “the lighting impact (on neighborhoods) will be minimal,” he said.
Grove said she hasn’t spoken with officials at the schools lately but did get a call several months ago from an athletic spokesman from Alki, she said. He was seeking advice to bring soccer to the middle school but was warned of the problems with playing on grass during fall and winter, she said.
The club’s biggest reason for taking Mother Nature out of the equation is that kids and their parents won’t need to commute to the fields in Washougal, Battle Ground and Delta Park to practice anymore, Harshbarger said.
Kiggins is the closest synthetic field, but it isn’t available most of the time because it is used by the schools, Grove said.
“Our kids are traveling a great distance to play,” she said. “We want to keep them in the area.”
Although the club hopes the field will be ready for the fall 2011 season, Grove said an official date will depend on the club’s ability to collect money and receive grants to pay for the project.
