Read it all.Ed Foster, right, president of the Highland Golf Villas Homeowners Association, speaks at his home with Anne Coletta, who lives near Highland Lake Golf Club, about their concerns of a proposed soccer complex planned to be built at the golf club. Many of the villas are built on the edge of the course.
Buy Photo Mike Dirks/Times-News
Seats at the Henderson County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday might be hard to come by.
Residents near Highland Lake Golf Course in Flat Rock plan to show up in full force for the 5:30 p.m. meeting to express their opposition to the commissioners' plan to build a soccer complex on the golf course. At the same time, the local soccer community is rallying players to show support for the commissioners' vote two weeks ago to buy the 65-acre property.
Residents who oppose the project might be too late. At its last meeting, the board voted to exercise its option to buy the property and a closing date is expected sometime before the end of December, “but I would bet on sooner rather than later,” County Attorney Russ Burrell said. “That's where they are right now.”
The county has already committed a $5,000 option fee, a sum it would lose if the purchase fell through.
At Monday's meeting, commissioners are expected to vote on whether to pay cash for the $1.15 million sale or to finance — a necessary next step in the legal proceedings of the deal, County Manager Steve Wyatt said....
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
"County residents divided on soccer complex"
From the Times-News this morning:
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Here's a photo album of the two playoff soccer games tonight. Only about 250 attended in each game! High school soccer has NEVER drawn 1,000 in any game in this county in 25 years! Why does soccer deserve their own complex? The costs over 10 years will approach $2 million not $1.15M. For about that amount we might as well have artificial turf at high schools and avoid upsetting homeowners who do not want the soccer complex!
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I agree with the money issue, but I don't think this is about soccer vs no soccer. The soccer complex is simply the presenting issue here that highlights the lack of government transparency in deciding how and when to spend taxpayer dollars--without due public input and without getting enough information (traffic studies, public safety concerns, etc.).
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ReplyDeleteOne more thought--how and when to spend taxpayer dollars also involves the issue you bring up about what money gets spent on, with your concern being the cost of artificial turf vs maintenance of grass.
ReplyDeleteMy point is there is plenty of space at the existing high schools for soccer and every other outdoor sport at our high schools with artificial turf. Their own website years ago said that 4-5 turf fields was as good as 20 grass fiels. That would translate to 2-3 turf fields being as good as 9 grass fields (like the proposed 9 fields at Highland Park). Four turf fields would address most of their needs right off the bat with the right planning, and there is still space at other places to play at the high schools afterwards. There would be no need for traffic studies since it would be already certain what the traffic patterns would be and how to address them. There isn't money for both turf and a soccer complex and it seems to me a sport that cannot draw 250 for a playoff game should not get priority over a sport like football which draws thousands. It isn't soccer vs. no soccer, it should be every sport competing with everyone having a fair place at the table.
ReplyDeleteEven the Xcel SportsPlex in Fletcher (which is mostly volleyball and basketball) doesn't ask for public handouts and they are expanding. Can't the much larger soccer community get a private loan for this course? Besides how non-public this process has been, how Fletcher wanted a soccer complex and Flat Rock residents don't, ALL of us will pay for certain losses for forever when we can't fix what we have. I'm certainly glad your group is raising serious issues about this.
My point is if there isn't money for artificial turf there shouldn't be money for a soccer complex. Over 10 years it's about the same amount of money.
Thank you.
Good points, Dennis--thanks.
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