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Recreation Commission Meeting October 6, 2003 so she approached NOSO to see if the organization would be interested. What Mr. Friedl wants to do is come in the Spring with a crew from the Blackburn groundskeepers, revamp four of the fields at Barton Bradley (level, clean out, patch holes, put grass seed in and get them into a major league caliber field). In exchange for doing that, he wants to hold two soccer games. One is a week-long goalie camp that is open to anyone. The other is a by-invitation only soccer camp, a national camp. Last year he held it at Oberlin College, and it did not work out for a number of reasons. One is that there was no air conditioning in the dorms. The other reason is that he was not allowed to do anything to get the fields into suitable condition. Mr. Friedl has already made arrangements with the Radisson to host the players, and all the field conditioning will be done at his expense. Again, it’s on City property, so Mr. Esher is here to get approval. Mr. Gareau said that one issue that Council would want to know would be the actual cost of watering. Will the water bill and the installation of the actual water system be picked up by NOSO. Mr. Esher said that the installation of the line from the street to the central location and the hose reel would be picked up by NOSO. The water would have to be discussed. Ms. Hayes asked if Mr. Esher knew what amount of water bills would be at issue. He replied that he did not know. Mr. Garerau said that Marty Young, at Springvale, could probably give the Rec Commission an idea of what amount of water would be moving through the system and the area that would be covered. Mr. Esher provided a brochure to pass around to the members of the type of watering system that would be involved. He said it would be a self-propelled system with a Kohler engine that drives the unit. The machine would cost about $8,000 to $10,000. NOSO would be willing to pick up that price and the 3” water line. Mr. Kelley said that the drainage on the fields in the past years has been upgraded. He continued that they do take a good watering but did not personally see any problem with someone upgrading the facilities; that it could be nothing but a Godsend for the kids at NOSO. Mr. Gareau said that, on the other hand, the Rec Department might have to pick up a $20,000 water bill every year. The donation is wonderful and very much appreciated, he continued, but if it means that kind of water bill, maybe some other way to get the water could be achieved, perhaps through a pump or well. Mr. Esher said that there are currently 350 kids in the Rec League. There are 18 travel teams, and there are 14 premier soccer leagues. Then there are five or six additional teams that only play in the springtime. The Rec Department runs two leagues in the summer. There are other people that just come on weekends knocking the ball around. The Rec Department also uses it for their softball program. One of the things to work out, Mr. Esher said, is that if Mr. Friedl does this, four fields will be taken out of service for the spring season because it will take that long to get the grass ready. Some games will have to be shifted to Clague Park, and some practices will be shifted to the schools where they used to play. Ms. Hayes asked if Brad’s offer is contingent on the City providing the water. Mr. Esher said no, but NOSO would have a hard time watering the fields otherwise. Ms. Hayes asked where the system would be stored. The system would be stored at Barton Bradley by the shed. Ms. Hayes asked if it would be stored in a shed or if NOSO would need a shed. Mr. Esher said that NOSO has insurance for $4 million dollars per incident. Mr. Gareau said that there could be a board on board shed constructed for this purpose to avoid vandalism. Mr. Esher said that roughly 50,000 people use the fields just from NOSO every year. This is a conservative estimate, not counting practices. Also, Mr. Esher noted that concessions need to be added again to the park. Page 5