Friendswood project to boost softball group
Friendswood youth softball league players could be pitching from new mounds come September, just in time for the start of fall ball.
Friendswood City Council last month approved spending more than $904,000 on construction contracts to install four softball fields as well as two concession and restroom facilities at the city’s Sportspark. Located on FM 528 and Moore Road, the 27-acre multipurpose park now has three soccer fields and four softball fields as well as a concession and restroom facility.
The council’s action was welcome news for the Friendswood Girls Softball Association, the primary user of the city park. Expanding the number of softball fields, said Jay Heintz, the nonprofit association’s president, will give its coaches more time to develop players and build a better tournament program.
“Our ability to expand our program, our ability to host tournaments and our ability to fundraise has just gotten substantially greater,” Heintz said of the council’s action to approve construction contracts.
The local softball association offers programs for girls ages 4-14 and hosts two youth leagues — the Friendswood Eclipse and the Friendswood Fusion. Although the association is the primary user of the fields, adult softball leagues use them on Sundays and Mondays, which limits the youth softball association’s ability to host tournaments.
The organization is affiliated with the national youth programs of the Amateur Softball Association, and tournaments are important to help the local organization raise funds to support programs, Heintz said.
Because the Friendswood association misses out on the ability to host ASA-sanctioned youth tournaments — normally two- to three-day weekend events — the local group is limited to hosting a couple of tournaments a year when there are gaps in the schedule of the adult leagues. Typically, the association can only host smaller one-day roundrobin games on Saturdays.
And when the youth softball association can squeeze in a weekend tournament, it has to rent portable toilets because of the park’s limited restrooms. Heintz referred to the park’s restrooms as being “outdated and in disrepair.”
The association was able to host 31 teams at the Sportspark May 2931, thanks to a city arrangement with the adult leagues. Renting portable restrooms to accommodate the tournament crowd came out of the association’s budget.
“The ability to have infrastructure to handle that kind of crowd will be phenomenal,” Heintz said.
The additional fields also will allow coaches to spend more time helping players hone their softball skills, he added.
The city is spending $362,349 on the four fields. Professional Golf Services, contractors based out of Fort Worth, will build the new softball fields. The city also is contracting with Public Restroom Co., a Nevada-based company to construct two prefabricated restroom/concession stand buildings for $542,180.
Funding is coming from a $1.7 million bond program approved by city voters in 2013. Morad Kabiri, Friendswood’s assistant city manager, said there may not be much site work to see initially. The prefabricated restroom and concession facilities first must be assembled off-site and transported to Friendswood for installation.
The contract approvals to build the four softball fields and two concession/ restroom facilities is different from the bond project’s original scope, however. Originally, the project was to install two additional softball fields at the sports park, replace the existing restroom/concession facility, expand the parking lot and renovate a meeting facility near FM 528. City decided to rework design plans with the goal to help the association expand its tournament program and fundraising ability.
A city engineer redesigned the project with input from the softball association to include two additional softball fields, an additional restroom/ concession building and an extended parking lot.
“For each of our parks we have what is known as primary users,” Kabiri said. “In exchange for being a primary user, they are able to utilize the facility in exchange for maintenance of a facility and certain capital improvements. Since they are the ones going to be using it day-in and dayout, it is important to get their input.”
Although the current expenses are within the $1.7 million project’s budget, Kabiri said he is likely to be back before the council presenting additional contacts to finish out the venture.
If an overage occurs, there will be money to pull from to finish the park improvements, Kabiri said.
“At this point we have not gone over budget,” Kabiri said. “We presume that when everything is said and done that we would come over budget. But we have savings from other bond projects that we’ve already realized and those savings can offset these costs.”
Heintz said he is “absolutely happy” with the opportunity the city is providing the organization.
“We’ve been working really hard to build our program over the last few years,” he said. “We’ve been known in the area for having a very fair program where we try to make our league teams even and really try to develop our players.”
Heintz would like to see additional improvements to the sports park, but those are long-term plans the organization would take on. Once the four softball fields are completed, he said the association will be able to host tournaments and raise funds to build them.
“There may be some items like bleachers that our organization would then, over time, have to come up with the money and build,” he said. “The advantage is that once we have the new fields in place, our ability to fundraise goes up significantly.” In other park news: The city council unanimously voted last month to purchase more than an acre to expand Old City Park, located on Briarmeadow Avenue near Winding Way Drive.
The city is spending $240,000 to buy the property from Brian Vidosh Jr. and Edwina Vidosh. The expenditure is being funded by a $1.4 million bond approved by Friendswood voters in November 2014.
The park currently includes a playground, picnic tables, barbecue pits and nature trails. The park also features a equestrian arena with bleachers, a concession stand and an announcer’s booth to host horse shows and riding events.
The additional property may be used to extend a trail system from Stephenson Park at 1100 S. Friendswood Drive into Old City Park, Kabiri said.