We need a joint-use agreement, not a parking lot at Roosevelt Field

Here, we go again. I’ve read where Olympic College is going to ask Bremerton city officials to turn Roosevelt Field into a parking lot.

That, my friends, wasn’t a smart move when OC suggested it a couple years ago and it’s not a good move now.

The first mistake the city made was tearing down the grandstands at grand old Roosevelt earlier this decade. That’s been rehashed in this space before and I won’t go into the details, but basically it left the community without a decent baseball complex. Maybe Roosevelt wasn’t so grand, but the facility should have been refurbished, not torn down.

TO TAKE AWAY recreational property makes no sense, not even if it’s replaced elsewhere.

Once you got it, keep it. And maintain it.

The parking problem can be solved. Besides, it can’t be that serious. Have you heard anybody say, “I’m not going to class because I can’t find a parking spot.” Some students at the University of Washington walk two miles to campus.

Others ride bicycles.

OK, bicycles aren’t the answer for everybody, but there’s got to be another way to satisfy the student body at the University of Bremerton.

MAYBE IT’S TIME to institute a shuttle system. The city and the college should work out a shuttle arrangement to get students to and from the school. There are park and ride lots sprinkled around the area.

The parking lot at Lions Park in East Bremerton sits empty most of the fall and winter months. OC should ask the city if they could use that parking lot, not ask it they will turn Roosevelt Field into a parking lot.

THERE COULD be a time, down the road perhaps, when Olympic College will want to tie Roosevelt Field into its own athletic plans. Many of the college’s physical education classes use the field now. The Rangers’ softball team also uses the field. Where will they play. The baseball team has to travel to the Fairgrounds. What if a baseball diamond was put back on Roosevelt. OC’s baseball team would then have a field right across the street to practice and play game son – just like in the old days. What if the Rangers football program is restored? Where will they practice?

What would happen if the city allowed the college to build a parking lot at Roosevelt?

“We might as well fold up tent as far as softball programs go,” said Pat Westhoff, recreation director for the parks department. “We only have two other (both at Lions Park) adult-sized slowpitch fields in the city. With the exception of some men’s fastpitch, women use Roosevelt exclusively now. We just put in a new concession and a new bathroom (at a cost of about $60,000).

“We can’t afford t ogive up our field,” bottom lined Westhoff. “It makes no sense. If we ever got a new complex, my plan has been to turn Roosevelt into a youth complex. Or if you have to, you can turn it back into a baseball field.

“But a parking lot? That’s a shame.”

Mayor Gene Lobo said he’s not being approached by the college, but “It’s a long way from any kind of negotiations or discussions. I have to say the college has been as interested in that for as many years as I can recall,” he said. Lobe is not anxious to turn it over.

LOBE, WESTHOFF AND other city officials are hopeful a new complex, dreamed about for the last decade or so but shot down in a vote by citizens a year ago, will become a reality in the not-so-distant future. Through efforts of the Andy Pendergast Memorial Committee, plans have been drawn up for such a facility that would include five fields in a cloverleaf pattern, two other fields (one designated for junior baseball, two soccer fields, RV parking, batting cages, jogging track, a four-foot swiming pool, a concession/restroom area, a museum for the Andy Pendergast Memorial Softball Hall of Fame and a small area for a pro shop.

It’s still to early to say if that plan will fly, but people in the community should go to bat for it when the time comes. It’s the kind of facility other communities have, the kind of facility that would enable Bremerton to become a hub, as it once was, for state and regional softball tournaments. It’s the kind of facility that would bring a lot of out-of=town cash to area businesses in addition to providing residents with a first-class recreation area.

A GROUP OF COMMUNITY leaders associated with the Flagship City ’88 task force have been meeting in recent weeks. The idea is to come up with a “dream list” of athletic and recreational facilities that would make Bremerton a better place to live.

I could come up with my own dream list, but that’s all it would be, a dream.

What the community of Bremerton desperately needs is the city, Olympic College and the Bremerton School District to work together.

A joint use agreement would benefit everyone. The city should be able to use the college’s and school district’s gyms and classrooms. The college and school district should be able to use the city’s playfields and recreation facilities.

What we don’t need right now, however, is for the city to turn Roosevelt Field into a parking lot for the college.

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