I won't even go into the damage such a field would do to the anatomy of the poor players having to play their sports on the infield. This is not the first time this guy has tried this, last year it took acts by the City Council (The City of Santa Barbara owns the land the stadium is located on) to prevent him from doing it last year. I understand he was run out of both the College of Marin and Santa Rosa City College after destroying both their facilities and track programs with the same kind of antics. Since he seems to do this as a hit and run, one can only assume he does it for his own ego gratification. If I may editorialize further--In my decades in the Santa Barbara area, artificial turf does not fit into the aestheticly and environmentally sensitive community I have come to know. Since this guy is new to our area, I doubt he has had the opportunity or willingness to learn about the community. Instead he has railroaded this monument to . . well, himself . . and let the community interest be damned.
Our issue, as Track and Field fans and participants is to find ways to keep our marvelous facility in such a fashion as to allow our public usage--meets and practice sessions to continue. I suspect the only security we could have is to get this guy run out of town on a rail (unfortunately only to destroy some other facility or program, I fear). And, while he is in a politically awkward position and can't take the lead in this issue (effectively against his boss), we need to support Robin Paulsen, the Track Coach at Santa Barbara City College (coincidentally a Masters athlete) to retain his program(s). Fortunately other groups have. Club West and the Santa Barbara Athletic Association to name a few. This site now contains links to some of the information they have discovered about both this man's history and the poor safety record of the Field Turf product he hopes to install. Hopefully this will allow the civic leaders the evidence to make some sense of this idiotic proposal before the damage is done. Take note: Club West has had to move the locaton of their event to the newly refurbished University of California, Santa Barbara track. Our Western Regional Master Championships were supposed to held there this year, but that entire meet had to be moved because of this ongoing situation.
Folks, keep vigilant in your area.
Latest developments: Over the summer, despite our protestations, the facility was constructed (or damaged, depending on your perspective). And now my web page has been discovered. I just got my response. My reward for trying to help protect our valuable facility is that I have been banned from working as an official at the events at Santa Barbara City College by the Athletic Director. I guess this is supposed to be punishing me by preventing me from giving away hours, days of my time to help their events go smoothly and their athletes to participate in properly administered events--something I have done for a couple of decades for absolutely no remuneration. If this is not evidence of a shallow, self-absorbed individual, I do not know what is. He's gotten his results. He has done the damage to our community facility--I hope he is proud of himself for his accomplisments: As predicted, the Southern California Junior College Championships have found a new host facility. He has driven Mr. Paulsen away from the program he has ably guided for well over a decade--he announced he will be retiring at the end of the track season. For all of his work to support the Track and Field community, I hope this is not the last we see of him. What is next--the destruction of the Track and Cross Country programs at Santa Barbara City College? We will know that when we see the replacement of the coach and the support the program receives in the future. Will it be a part-time, walk-on coach? Will our meets continue into the future or will barbed wire prevent the masses from entering the stadium? It is here our sport is currently under seige, where will the next battleground be? Will we retreat again?
http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/finance/turf-FAQ.pdf Lake Oswego FAQs
http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/finance/turf-PR.pdf Press Release to describe second attempt to fix the problems at Lake Oswego
http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/finance/turf-chron.pdf Chronology of first attempt to fix Lake Oswego
http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/finance/turf-PR2.pdf Announcing re-opening after three attempts to repair.
Harassment of BB Coach
Developments