Orange Park Baseball Bleachers & Other Park Concerns

South San Francisco, CA   June 29, 2016

EDITORS NOTE: WE’VE HAD QUITE A FEW EMAILS REGARDING THE CONDITION OF OUR PLAYING FIELDS AND OUR BLEACHERS. WE POSTED A PHOTO & NEIGHBOR COMMENT ON OUR FB PAGE AND BELOW IS THE RESULTING CONVERSATION. WE APPRECIATE THE PROMPT RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM SSF PARKS MANAGER SAMANTHA HAIMOVICH WHICH WE HAVE INCLUDED AT THE BOTTOM. 

Broken bleachers at OMP
Photo: Jocelyn Jovian

Jocelyn Jovian shares this post & concern which ESC receives regularly regarding Orange Memorial Park Baseball Bleachers:
“Orange park bleachers. South San Francisco high school baseball plays here. Other towns come to face our boys and this is what they see. It’s a hazard. Someone is going to fall through and really hurt themselves.”

COMMENTS:
Jim -How the heck does that go unnoticed by Park & Rec personnel?

Belinda -Not only that. Under the bleachers: always dirty. Surrounding area: dog poop, leaves and bugs. Reported it once via ssf engage

Mareth -They want us to have pride in our City, P&R needs to so the same.

Kathy – You can find the Park & Rec trucks hidden under the trees.

Lynn – Our tax dollars NOT at work.

William – Or tax dollars not being allocated to park and rec?

Debbie – This is a good example of what should be taken care of with money from the sales tax increase. These bleachers should be replaced. Let you city leaders know. They are asking for input.

Chauntel – It is quite embarrassing to host other schools at our “home field”

William – Things like this are truly a “no-brainer” and should be fixed immediately. Someone needs to take charge and just get it done. If SSF is broke that’s one thing, if it’s not then get on it and get it done. No need to discuss this in a committee and analyze it to death.

Stephen – SSFPW is Ghetto!

Cindy – On the top bleacher kids can fall backwards onto the cement below.I don’t let the kids sit up there.They need to be replaced.

Rose – ESC: Let us know if there is something concrete we should be doing. They are tagged, so hopefully a rep will see and escalate.

Ava -my nephew gavin is on the tigers. he starts in 2 weeks. make sure the city does something before his big day it doesnt look safe for the commuinty so esc. please keep us neighbors up to date before the big day, thank you

Monica -This is the far field by the bridge. The field closer to el Camino the bleachers are in better shape.

Lowell – It’s a joke the fields are joke. Poor playing fields. No excuse. We go play 13-14 ball at other city’s fields on weekends because our field southwood is a joke.

Matthew – Bring photos like this and constructive criticism and suggestions to the city council meeting. Thats how you get it done. You have a voice. Make it count.

Ron – That has been going on from Management hiring interim supervisers with no knowledge of construction / irrigation instead of hiring from workers within. That is for the 5 yrs to collect medical then leave. Look at the last two and this is what happens

Juan – This is a health and safety concern. This is not what we should have in the Industrial City. I say contract this work out to the public sector.

Sheila – The field is in even worse shape….

Lowell – We see it daily.

Juan -Lowell  is right. Our fields are so bad, we won’t even 1) invite other teams to play at our field and 2) play on our own fields on weekends because of how bad they are. I have kids that are afraid to get in front of a ball because of how bad it is, and I can’t blame them at all. Of course, the DPW and Rec depts are tagged in this, but they won’t do anything, and none of the “leaders” in South City will either.

Sharon – All Park & Rec does is mow the law (sometimes) and empty the trash but that’s the extent to which they do work around the parks. The bathrooms are always disgusting! SSF P&R should be embarrassed that their city facilities (Alta Loma too) are is such in crappy shape! There’s plenty of money to pay to keep up these facilities and even make them nice. But to quote someone who used to work for SSF P&R and he said “these people are LAZY and don’t care! They do the bare minimum.”
Nichole – It’s all true. Smh. I’m sure it would help if these crooked ass city/ board. Whoever they are stop making money disappear. ???.

Sheila – SSF Pony schedules their home games in other Peninsula city parks… that pretty much says everything that needs to be said about the condition of SSF baseball fields.

Lowell – Unfortunately dog parks are far more important than our children.

Juan – Although I heard this second hand and was not there to actually hear it, it was reported that someone in P&R said they would rather have Callero become a dog park than a baseball field.

Kieran – send it to the media you will see Park and Rec do something about it

Leanne -By all means get em fixed!!

Dennis – Don’t forget all the bugs (ticks) crawling all over the bleachers…

Dino – Boo hooo… We used to play barefoot in the snow… with ROCKS! We had no baseballs.. =( toughen up!

Jim – Sign up and send your pics (or just info you want the city to be aware of) to Engage SSF it’s s free service from the city go the the city website. They have been very proactive with issues and direct them to the correct City Dept. I signed up with the encouragement of our City Manager Mike Futrell at one of our Avalon/Brentwood HOA meetings.

Liza – Dear SSF Residents and Friends, thank you for ALL your comments.. I have sent this pic and all your comments to your Council and City Staff.. I will follow-up and have an update to ESC to post..

Juan -Thank you Liza for your attention to this matter.

Everything South City- Thanks Liza Normandy, we did receive an update from PR yesterday to which we replied requesting follow up on specific info before we share on ESC. You had attended one of the coach meetings years ago and nothing has changed. Our group came before council and the group was to be put on the agenda for the next month- yet it never happened, it was a waste of our time, as many of the seasoned coaches knew it would be. Our volunteer coaches should have not have to ask twice, much less beg, to have the tools needed to mentor OUR kids, it is shameful. Thank you for interceding in any way you can. It is appreciated by all. {ksw}

Everything South City -Thank you to South San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department for this response to our question regarding the needed repairs to the OMP benches: “Parks staff is working on repairing the bleachers today and should have the damaged portion repaired i…See More

Lowell – That’s rotted wood if I ever seen it. But ok. It looks like they put a plywood patch on the side of it already

Ava – Thank you so much at least my nephew will be able to start his baseball with the Tigers in a week now it saved so many kids lives thank you south san Francisco Bay area neighbors

Dennis -Watch out for the TICKS crawling on the benches….

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Full response from SSF Parks:

‘We were approved funding in the current year’s Capital Improvement Program to replace the bleachers, which obviously really needs to get done. However, the bids for replacement came in much higher than our project budget, so we had to pause. We requested additional funding for next year’s budget, however the decision was made, given the increasing funding commitment, to take a step back and study what it would cost to fully renovate the softball and hardball fields, which would include replacing bleachers at both fields; we would not want to invest in the new bleachers, then find out that we might have wanted to move them, etc. We don’t have the result of the baseball improvement cost estimate yet, but I suspect that it will be so expensive to do that we will end up having to defer this to a future date. When the study does show all the costs, we will make a decision about whether to move forward with just the bleacher replacement. In the meantime, we will be doing repairs to the existing bleachers, using our in-house parks staff.’

Everything South City followed up with a request for more specific information and a timeline to know when the bleachers might be repaired. Again, we appreciate the prompt response by Samantha Haimovich as follows:

‘Parks staff is working on repairing the bleachers today and should have the damaged portion repaired in the next day or two. The damage which was shown in the original photograph at the beginning of the post was fresh wood, and we believe vandalism/deliberate destruction was involved. We have 2 staff members who are in OMP daily and monitor the areas for damage. If we encounter damage to the bleachers, we repair it as soon as possible. Although I agree that the bleachers are in poor condition and have been working on the replacement project for quite some time, we do our best to keep what we have in a useable state as best as we can.

With respect to the overall field feasibility study, we are working with a landscape architectural consultant who is looking at both the baseball/softball side of OMP and the soccer side, and will provide detailed cost estimates for both natural grass and artificial turf options in approximately 6 weeks. I believe that looking at these fields with some very realistic costs in hand will help us make the decision to decide what to do next. Certainly these cost estimates will be helpful to us as we look at the other fields in town also, and try to prioritize how much rehabilitation we are able to do in both the short- and long-term.’