New site plan renderings show what $6.1 million in upgrades could do for the Founders Park ballfield, home to the Coral Shores High School baseball program.
A series of drawings by the architect firm Keystar were unveiled during an Aug. 18 meeting of the village’s Baseball Field Citizens Task Force and at the Aug. 19 school board meeting.
Concept images presented by Keystar architect Tyler Kersh showed how new improvements, such as a two-story building behind home plate for concessions and press box, would look at the ballfield. And while the field’s dimensions won’t change, Kersh acknowledged slight modifications were made to the foul territory behind the first- and third-base lines to allow for new dugouts and amenity buildings. The changes are also geared to mitigate foul balls from reaching the parking lot and U.S. 1.
“We basically tightened the foul ball system, allowing the netting system to be a little more efficient and catching some of those balls,” Kersh said.
Other plans include new grandstands to seat 300 people, which is roughly how many attend any given game. Design images also show a new single-story, multi-use building attached to the home dugout. The facility would give space to players, coaches and umpires.
Renderings show trees around the ballfield remaining at the village and community members’ request. Kersh said new buildings won’t stick out beyond the tree line, quelling some concerns in the community that new upgrades would bring a stadium-like feel.
“Our intent is to keep those (buildings) low enough to where these are not prominent and sticking out past the trees,” Kersh said.
And plans are still in place to go with synthetic turf, a subject garnering much debate within the Islamorada community. During the village’s task force meeting, resident Cheryl Culberson said she spoke with two engineers who said cisterns could be implemented to adequately water a natural playing surface.
“We have no more business putting this plastic crap down on the floor than the man on the moon,” she said.
Pat Lefere, executive director of operations for the school district, said they’re well aware of the challenges — and costs — in maintaining artificial grass surfaces not only at Founders Park, but also at playing fields from Coral Shores to Key West. He said the school district is now advising any new playing surfaces should be artificial as opposed to natural grass.
Discussion among the task force, Village Manager Ron Saunders, Lefere and the public lasted three hours. A myriad of topics were highlighted, from synthetic turf versus grass, maintenance responsibilities between the village and school district, and the two new buildings proposed at the field.
Task force member Tony Hammon, a Coral Shores baseball coach, noted the school district approved a conceptual design during a June meeting. The village’s parks and recreation committee voted 7-1 to continue discussions with the district over the ballfield upgrades, and endorsing artificial turf, at its July meeting.
Hammon acknowledged the village can’t afford to leave millions of dollars provided by the school district for the baseball field on the table, as it could be shifted to another program — or school — should the village council elect to not move forward.
“I don’t believe our task is to fuss over the buildings and the number of bleachers. Our task is to say what can we do to move this forward,” he said.
Task force member Alina Davis, a real estate agent and member of the parks and recreation committee who voted “no” on the proposed plans, disagreed with Hammon’s statements. She said the task force should take note of survey results from Miller Legg, the firm hired to conduct a master plan of Founders Park, and a separate survey by Mayor Sharon Mahoney.
Miller Legg’s survey showed that adding artificial turf fields to the park wasn’t a high priority among the 860 people who responded. And Mahoney’s survey, which asked if they want to replace the artificial grass surface with synthetic turf, had 112 people say “no” to the 51 who answered “yes.”
“I think that this is really what we need to be looking at – what do the residents want?” Davis said.
Saunders said he wanted the task force to examine the site plan and recommend any changes to aspects such as the buildings, not so much artificial turf versus grass.
“That can be an argument all the way through,” Saunders said. “I’ve been given direction by my council to see what we can do to get this thing going. There’s still a lot more work to be done, particularly in the design of the buildings.”
In addition to Hammon and Davis, the task force includes Richard Black, backcountry fishing guide; Jamie Engel, local real estate agent; and Andy Cone, fishing guide and former Coral Shores baseball player.
The village owns the ballfield and leases it to the school district for use by the high school baseball team during the season. That’s done through several agreements which need approval from the village council and school board.
