With summer just around the corner, athletes from all age groups will be out in full force enjoying the thing they love to do away from the daily grind.
Facilities in the city will be receiving some care and attention to ensure they are ready for everybody to enjoy, but there is no secret that sports user groups have their concerns about the venues provided by the city and have their lists of things they would like to have to make things better for all hands.
The Star talked to representatives of a number of sports organizations about the condition of the venues their respective group uses during the summer months.
Question: What is the condition of the facilities used by your group and what has to be done for them to meet your needs?
Stephen Leonard, president
Corner Brook Minor Soccer Association
Answer: I think there’s a lot of upgrade on the grass fields that we need. We’re still waiting for the city to fix Eastside (Ambrose O’Reilly) where they brought the trucks onto the field not last year but the year before and they actually left ruts right through the field. They temporarily fixed them last year, and we still couldn’t use full field because of the ruts, and they’re apparently supposed to sod it again this year. The big thing we need at Wellington, that’s the one used the most with the most hours going in, is changerooms and showers there. There is a temporary changeroom right now but there’s no lights. We asked the city to do it but they came back with a huge number and they’re not going to do it on the quote they got back so we need something there definitely.
Kathy Lukeman, president
Corner Brook Ladies Softball League
We’d like to have some washroom facilities because that would be a big thing for us. I know not everybody has them, but there’s a lot of places around here who have washrooms at their facility. We wouldn’t mind having a bit of storage at Eastside. We’d like to see our infields done so that they are more like softball fields because they are really hard. They need to be upgraded with the proper sand and materials. There’s more sand on other fields while ours is hard packed. For us, we want regular maintenance carried out so that it’s safe to use to ensure there’s no hazards.
Jamie O’Brien, president
Corner Brook Men’s Slo-pitch Softball League
The field conditions are definitely …they definitely need an upgrade. The infield is like playing on Class A. The ground is garbage and there’s been no upkeep or maintenance on the fields. We need a new infield on our fields. Needs to be dug up and redone.
Andrew Margeson, general manager and superintendent
Blomidon Golf and Country Club
The conditions are good but we could use a new clubhouse or a renovated one because it’s just getting old. A driving range would be nice but we have no room.
Janice Coleman,
Corner Brook Tennis Club
Conditions are good now. We’ve had a lot of vandalism in the past couple of years with people using the area and we had broken windows. But, the city last fall put in a fence around our building and I drove by the other day and it seems to have helped a lot. We do have an issue with regards to the upkeep of the grounds, which I think is a contracted-out thing, just with regards to garbage collection, recycling and cleaning. But, overall, the city has been great. If you call them they come and do what they need to do, but you kind of need to be on them. With regards to our building, I mean it’s brand new really but we have two very large bathrooms and a closet-size office and equipment room. So we really have nowhere for the kids to go in and eat their lunch or get out of the sun or anything like that. In the short-term it’s just timely installation of wind screens, nets and cleanliness of the grounds. And long-term, like a wish list kind of thing, would be a clubhouse area for kids and club members to go. We often joke that if we could switch the rooms around and have two small bathrooms and use the two big giant bathrooms as a lunch area so it’s almost not even so much as a new building as it is a reconfiguration of the building.
Soccer
Wellington Street Sports Complex (temporary changerooms, bleachers, washroom, canteen and storage garage)
Monarchs Complex (portapotty, two bleachers, storage shed)
George (Daddy) Dawe Memorial (storage shed, bleachers)
Ambrose O’Reilly Memorial Soccer Field (portapotty, storage shed, two sets of bleachers)
Corner Brook Tennis Club
Wellington Street Sports Complex Tennis Courts
Four tennis courts
Two washrooms
Office and equipment room
Women’s softball
Ambrose O’Reilly (main venue)
Two bleachers
portapotty
Fred Basha Memorial Park
(used rained out games, tournament play)
Two bleachers
Small storage shed
lights
Men’s slo-pitch softball
Fred Basha Memorial Park (storage shed, two bleachers, lights)
Monarchs Complex (two bleachers)
Golf
Blomidon Golf and Country Club (18-hole course, clubhouse, pro shop, practice facility, fully-serviced bar)
