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11/04/2003 15:58 FAX 541 682 5414 CITY MGRS OFFICE 0 002 In regards to the current need for more ball fields, all of your statistics are city generated rather from the community as a whole. In the most recent community. survey, which is the only statistically valid report to reflect the desires and concerns of the community, playing soccer or baseball is not listed in the top 20 recreation activities people would like to do more often (Community Survey, p.20)! In addition, team managers have been 99% satisfied to very satisfied until fees have been raised when their satisfaction was reduced to 90%--a rate that is still very high. You use the number 24,000 participants, whereas in the City Budget FY 04 the number used is 16,000. Even the focus group of sports advocates state the declining popularity of baseball and softball. The city has exceeded the bond goals of updating fields by four (19 instead of 15), so I see no need for the continuation of updating when other priorities still exist (pools, p~~th connectivity, light shields, landscaping, etc.). I have to question why it is that your numbers and representation are so biased toward spoils field development. We must be honest and begin to really Listen and respond with action and resources to the overall community's desire of what they want their parks to took like-more natural, trails, habitat protection, youth programming, and pools (see Eugene Outdoors, p 7). Creating more ball fields, of any kind, especially in a wetland, requires a ridiculous amount of drainage, money, and chemi~~al treatment in a park that is clearly more than 50% developed and that has a natural element that needs protection. Creating a more natural park would dove-tail with the huge efforts of the city, EWEB, County, State and Fede:rai agencies expenditure to keep our streams clean. Amazon has a unique water feature, which no other park. in Eugene has and needs coordinated not conflicting developments comprehensively planned. It-has been incredibly frustrating working with the: city staff who seem to have a switch and bait approach to our questions and concerns. It took from March until the end of September to end the illegal pool parking on the grassland. And now to protect Amazon park, I must spend my time pointing to city documents that already guide the city staff on what is the right thing to do. Bteilding more ball fields is counterproductive to the project of naturalizing the stream that the city hopes to do with the aid of other entities. I would like to see a comprehensive plan that includes the eoordinaited effort with the Corp of Engineers before we implement any more sports field updates. Since a good amt>unt of bond money is still left, a pool or other youth recreation should be explored in order to meet the priorities and desires of the community. I do hope to stay involved in the process and request that all public process and mayor's committee meeting dates and locations be listed in a timely fashion on the vvebsite that encourages citizen involvement i.e. providing a month notice for meetings, giving dates for subsequent meetings at the current meeting, and updating minutes regularly. Please inclade my name on any interested parties list for public processor park governance meetings. r What I am bringing to your attention is not a minority opinion about a single park issue but a majority opinion about our entire park system. l hope that all fuhue correspondence from the city will be more fair and accurate... cerely, ~-~1 ~'h Marcy Cauthorn Citizens for a Natural Amazon 2739 University Street Eugene OR 97403 cc. Cazolyn Weiss, Project Manager Jghnny Medlin, POS Division Manager Kurt Corey, PW Director A.ngei Jones, LRCS Director Renee Grube, Recreation Division Manager Scott Duckett, Natural Resources Manager Dennis Taylor, City Manager IV[ayor Torrey and Eugene City Councilors ~ Mayors Advisory Committee Planning Committee Floyd Prozanski, State Representative ~P~eter DeFazio, State Representative Lauri Segal, 1000 Friends of Oregon Jan Spencer, Citizens for Public Accountability Jeff Krueger, LCOG Randy Webb, Institute for Wildlife Protection