Committee discusses options for youth football site

ST. MARYS — The Parks and Playgrounds committee of the St. Marys City Council met Monday with youth football organizers to flesh out a plan that would resolve a permanent place for the football teams to play and practice at.

At a prior meeting last month, Councilor Ashley Randolph had proposed Kuck’s Kiwanis Cove Park — located at North Front and Madison streets — as a new location, saying that the park was underutilized.

On Monday, the committee discussed further options for moving to Kuck’s Cove.

“We met with the youth football coaches and discussed the option. All in all, we took a vote and everybody agreed to go forward on it. They like the idea of establishing an area where the youth football program can grow,” said Scott Glass, one of the coaches for the youth football teams.

The main problem the league faces is there isn’t enough adequate lighting where they currently practice.

A proposal was put forth regarding portable lights that could be used either at KC Geiger Park or at Kuck’s Cover.

Glass said he had researched portable lighting and found some ranging from $6,000 to $12,000 in price.

City Safety and Service Director Greg Foxhoven said he liked the idea of having lights that could be moved from place to place, rather than installing new lights at KC Geiger Park and having to take them out and move them to Kuck’s Cove in the future.

With the youth football league agreeing to help pay for the lights,

with the city chipping in as well, Foxhoven said portable lights would be ideal because after the season is over with, the city would be able to find a use for them in the meantime.

One of the committee members asked if the city would be able to rent a set of portable lights and set them up to see what would be needed, and Electric Department Superintendent Mack Kuenning said that they could get some from Ohio CAT.

“We might be able to go through Ohio CAT who we deal with quite a bit,” said Kuenning.

“Get a demo down here and just put it up and see what it looks like at night.”

Glass said it would be a “perfect-case scenario” to have lights at KC Geiger Park and be able to move them.

Another issue was parking.

Glass said parking fills up quickly when the teams play and practice at KC Geiger Park, estimating there could be 200 or more cars there.

Foxhoven asked what parking was like at Kuck’s Cove and Randolph said she and City Law Director Zach Ferrall counted the parking stalls and figured there were 75 to 80 parking stalls.

Foxhoven said there’s an open lot vacant where a house used to sit that could be used for parking.

As far as a timeline goes, Foxhoven said it boils down to money and what kind of other work will need to be done at Kuck’s Cove, including draining, tiling and seeding that’s already on the docket.

“We have to meet with engineering to see what type of schedule, look at the funding for the building,” Foxhoven continued.

The committee didn’t think it would be unreasonable for Kuck’s Cove to become the new permanent home for the teams in the next two years.

“It’s important to us that we find a permanent location,” said Foxhoven.