Sports complex
Field and sports-complex capacity and scheduling.
The timeline
- July 18, 2024"Entire complexes booked, locked, no children" — a public audit of ball field permits
Steven Armstrong, who started a 501(c)(3) youth baseball program for disadvantaged kids, presented the board with his review of 110 city field-permit documents, reporting fields reserved and never used and a 25% late-cancellation fee assessed against only one league. The board also recommended the name Ocotillo Park for a new 1.8-acre neighborhood park and heard a recap of the Fourth of July events.
- November 16, 2023Two vacant seats, one subcommittee paused, and December cancelled
With Districts 1 and 5 vacant and District 3 absent, the board voted to delay the community outreach subcommittee's report until it has a full board, cancelled the December meeting for want of action items, and tabled the dog park rules to January 18, 2024. The sports field usage committee created in October has not met yet.
- October 19, 2023A subcommittee on who gets the fields — and a new chair
The board voted to form a subcommittee to analyze how the City uses its sports fields for youth, and named Board Member Coppedge to chair it, after he raised locked gates, contention between the school district and the Parks Department, and unanswered questions about who owns, rents and pays for the fields. The same meeting elected Fred Raish Chair and Laura Haas Vice-Chair as Cassie McClure ended six years of service.
- Motion passed for subcommittee for field usage — Form a committee or subcommittee to analyze the best way for the City to use the sports fields for youth.
- Motion passed — Board Member Coppedge to chair the subcommittee.
- September 21, 20233,000 kids, four fields, and fifteen years without a new soccer complex
C. W. Ward of the Las Cruces Youth Soccer Association told the board the league has roughly 3,000 kids and 428 coaches on four fields, has lost fields since a 2012 swap with the school district, and was removed from the joint use agreement around 2014. Board Member Coppedge said he is interested in a committee to further address inequities with youth soccer, and it will be placed on another agenda. Staff also returned with the trail education plan requested in August and reported four locations where trail signage has been removed, but not by staff.
- April 20, 2023A fee schedule passes by acclamation with its language still to be written
The board approved the 2023-2024 Fees and Charges and Facility Use Policy "with language added regarding bathroom use and field rental process" — language that did not yet exist when the vote was taken. A motion to table the item to May died, and the reason given on the record was that the policy is already in the queue for City Council in May. Public Participation: "There was none."
- March 16, 2023A finished dog park nobody can open, and a maintenance bill nobody budgeted
Two members of the public pressed the board on the Rinconada dog park, built but padlocked because it cannot be accepted separately from the Animal Services Center. Staff walked through an FY24 budget request that includes three new positions and over $750,000 in vehicles and equipment, and a board member asked why new facilities keep coming online without a maintenance component. The parks deputy director answered with the count: 50 full-time staff for roughly 148 park areas, 60 playgrounds, 40 miles of trails and 33 ballfields.
- June 11, 2020Thirty minutes on Zoom to green-light the Hadley ballfields
A five-member board met by Zoom for a single-item special meeting and accepted the Hadley Recreation Complex plan — the Hardy, Maag, Ron Galla and Paz baseball fields under the 2018 GO Bond — so the design build team could finalize cost and take it to City Council, with construction hoped for by July or August. Staff confirmed there is no funding source and nothing on the books to make the Jim Hardy restroom ADA compliant.
- February 20, 2020"Just putting another band aid" — tennis and pickleball push back on the GO Bond court plan
The first presentation of the GO Bond sports court rehabilitation to the board drew sustained objection from tennis and pickleball players, who said earlier meetings had led them to expect full resurfacing and professional-grade courts rather than crack repair. The board tabled the action to a special meeting and asked for two revisions — one with as much professional grade as possible, one showing what the existing money buys. A parent also told the board a discrimination complaint he filed in December 2018 was still unresolved.
- Superseded by the amended motion below; no separate vote is recorded on this version. — Table the action of the sports courts until the next meeting to see two different revisions that include as much as possible with professional grade options, and one to see what would be done with the money that we have.
- Motion carried unanimously. — Table the action of the sports courts to a special meeting, with date and time publicized to the public and those present, to see two different revisions that include as much as possible with professional grade options, and one to see what would be done with the money that we have.