City OKs field reservation policy changes

SANDPOINT — City Council discussed changes to Sandpoint’s athletic field reservation policy in August 2017 and, more than a year later, adopted several amendments to the document last week.

“We have had a little time to run through the policy and see what works and what doesn’t work,” Sandpoint Parks and Recreation Director Kim Woodruff said during the Jan. 2 meeting.

The policy provides city staff and user groups guidance on allocation procedures, field rental policy, permitted use of athletic fields, and criteria for priority use for city residents.

One of the main changes, Woodruff said, eliminates the “priority season” designation, which gave traditional sports seasons priority over shoulder seasons. Under the previous language, each sport was allowed to select a primary and secondary season. Baseball, softball and lacrosse, for example, were given priority in the spring, and soccer and football priority in the fall.

Another change eliminates the language that economic impact is determined by the number of players from outside of Bonner County. It adds that if two or more athletic organization in the same priority level request competing fields, the percentage of city residency will determine priority, rather than sub-group priorities over economic impact as previously stated in the policy. Games are given priority over practices as well, Woodruff said.

Also, rather than outline the reservation requirements for tournaments in the policy as it had previously, staff eliminated the section and it now refers users to the new special events policy recently adopted by City Council.

The “meat” of the policy, he said, is for staff to meet twice a year with user groups to discuss scheduling. Originally, the policy listed Feb. 28 as the date to meet each year for spring and summer play, and July 31 for fall play.

As per a request from Rick Mullins with the Sandpoint Strikers, however, the latter date was pushed up to June 30 to allow more time for organizers to plan going into fall.

Organizations are still required to provide complete and accurate schedules each week, as Woodruff said there could be changes to the schedules provided at the allocation meetings due to rainouts or other unforeseen circumstances.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.