Thanks to a generous grant and with a little luck, Burlingame sports leagues could be playing ball on artificial turf at Bayside Park in a year or so.
Community in Sports Development Council, a Salem, Ore.-based foundation, has committed to covering 65 percent of the cost of putting turf on Bayside Park’s fields 3 and 4 at 1125 Airport Blvd., Burlingame Parks and Recreation Director Randy Schwartz said.
The only catch: It’s unclear how much the turf will cost until more studies are done, he said.
EcoGrass, the company that would supply and install the artificial turf, operates the nonprofit Community in Sports Development Council. Officials from the council and EcoGrass were out of the country and unavailable for comment.
“These guys have now committed to helping us, but we don’t know exactly (how much) yet,” Schwartz said. “There is still another vendor interested in this, and I would hope they would give us a better deal.” He declined to name the vendor.
Artificial turf suppliers are willing to give the city a deal because of the picturesque park’s proximity to San Francisco International Airport and other artificial turf fields, Schwartz said, noting that they could fly in clients to compare their product to competitors’ turf.
City officials say even with a big grant, installing the turf is probably at least a year away because there are only two short periods — from mid-July through late August and from November to February — when the fields are not used heavily and the work could be done. It’s unlikely the details could be hammered out by the November-to-February window, Schwartz said.
he project’s total price won’t be known until more soil samples are taken from the former landfill site and the cost of reducing the slope of the fields to 1 percent or less is determined, he said.
Burlingame has committed to covering $150,000 of the cost for engineering work, and the sports leagues are contributing $350,000 by raising league fees $15 for at least five years. The Coyotes Lacrosse Club might take the $50,000 it initially reserved for the field at Mills High School and spend it on Bayside Park.
“It would be a highly functional multipurpose field,” Coyotes Lacrosse President Steve Alms said.
Artificial turf fields allow more games and practices to be held simultaneously and are playable during the wet weather months, Alms said. The artificial surface also would eliminate the need for Coyotes’ players to practice on asphalt, he said.
Artificial turf would increase the sizes of the baseball and softball diamonds so they could be split into two practice fields, said Lynn Mutto, a Burlingame recreation supervisor who overseas fields.
Leveled fields 3 and 4 would be large enough to host a soccer game and lacrosse game simultaneously or other combinations of sports activities.
City officials also estimated that artificial turf would allow the fields to be used at least 2,000 more hours a year because of their durability.
“With the lights, it would be fabulous,” Mutto said. “It is much needed.”
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