A Centralia College map showing the location of the planned athletic field on campus.
The Centralia City Council took action on two items on Tuesday night that will allow Centralia College to take steps toward developing a turf athletic field on the college’s campus to be used for soccer, baseball and other sports year-round.
During public comment, some citizens voiced support for the field, saying it will bring revenue to downtown businesses and be an asset to the community. Others voiced concerns about the noise and traffic created by spectators and athletes.
A property on Centralia College’s campus is planned to be developed as an athletic field. The College’s Master Development Plan identifies the area south of Centralia College Boulevard to Walnut Street and west of South Silver Street to South Rock Street as the proposed location of the athletic field that the college is calling the “field of dreams.”
The council voted to enter into a reimbursement agreement with the college for the electrical work as well as voting to vacant a portion of South Iron Street.
“Vacating a street is not a common thing that city councils do. You really only do these kinds of things for significant projects that are really going to impact the community in a positive way,” said Centralia Mayor Pro-tem Peter Abbarno. “This project does integrate the community even more with the college.”
Abbarno said that unlike the athletic fields at the Borst Park Sports Complex, this field should help drive people into the downtown area.
The council voted to enter into a reimbursement agreement with Centralia College for costs involved with creating sufficient electricity for the turf field. The city will fund the redistribution of the power lines and the college will reimburse the $323,460 cost over a five year period with a 2.5 percent interest rate.
Centralia City Light General Manager M.L. Norton said that he plans to have the electrical work complete in the first half of 2021. Norton said City Light would work to minimize any outages caused by the electrical work and would notify customers beforehand if their work will cause temporary power outages.
The city took further action on the college athletic field project by voting to vacate the 200 block of South Iron Street and an adjacent alley. The neighbors to the proposed athletic field include the Centralia Timberland Regional Library, the post office, an apartment complex, a few residential homes to the east and south, and commercial zones in the south.
Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston raised concerns about traffic and parking in the area before and after sporting events.
Steve Ward, vice president of finances and administration at Centralia College said parking and traffic through the area has been a big part of the planning process. Taking the existing parking lots into account, parking shouldn’t be a problem, he said.
John VerValen voiced concerns about public disturbance noise made by sports spectators and traffic in the area. He compared the fields at the Borst Park complex.
“There are several good reasons not to allow this action to happen. I hope the city will stop giving away the land that the people own,” said VerValen.
Ward said that field will not be close to the size of the Borst Park Complex so that traffic and noise are not comparable to what would be attracted to the college’s field.
Centralia College President Bob Mohrbacher said that he didn’t feel noise would be an issue as crowds at the college sporting event are not usually very large. He said that having a turf athletic field on the college’s campus would be a huge asset for students and community organizations that could utilize the field.
Citizen Jamie Kaiser wrote a letter in support of the project that was read as a public comment on the project and praised the college for moving forward with their strategic plan.
“As a downtown business owner, I know that this new activity will bring more commerce and positive attention to the downtown corridor,” Kaiser said.
Citizen Chris Thomas also wrote to the council in support of the college’s planned athletic field. He said it will provide local teams with another lighted-field option to hold games and practices and bring in tax revenue from those attending the games.
“The completion of the Centralia College athletic field will help our community in several ways… another beautiful addition to our college and downtown area,” Thomas wrote.
More information on Centralia College’s “field of dreams” can be found in the Centralia city council’s agenda packet on the city’s website.
