Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
5 <br />also make some changes as proposed by the low-bidder, including changing the <br />field surface to fescue instead of Bermuda, and allowing for a longer timeframe <br />for project completion (this lowering the contractor's cost). <br />Option C would include the field as described in Option B above, and may yield a <br />project that would cost the County in the range of $150,170,000, with the <br />remainder funded by outside parties. This might be accomplished by the <br />following additional actions: <br />1. Ask the Orange County Soccer Alliance or other organizations <br />to contribute funds for the irrigation system (approximately <br />$38,000) <br />2. Ask the Orange County Soccer Alliance to plant some of the <br />extra landscaping and native grasses that are required <br />(approximately $10,000), <br />Option D would see the County forego this as a County project, in favor of a <br />different approach. Although guidelines for the Soccer Superfund have not yet <br />been formally approved (a memorandum from the two of us in late-May offered <br />some ideas on same), one of the ideas used in other communities and discussed <br />in our drafty is that of matching grants. In this option, the County would step out <br />of the field construction, operation and maintenance altogether, and ask either <br />the Orange County Soccer Alliance, one of the member organizations of the <br />Soccer Alliance, or an outside organization to step in to build the field, working <br />directly with the owners of Maple View Farm. The County might consider a <br />matching grant toward the field's construction to the applicant organization(s), <br />and let that group be responsible for building the field. We would suggest making <br />our design/site plan (which has been approved) available to such a group to cut <br />their costs, or the organization(s) could redesign a field of their own. <br />We realize that the above options are somewhat complicated, and that this may <br />not be an easy decision. One lesson that has been learned by staff through this <br />exercise, regardless of the outcome, is the inefficiency of building a lone soccer <br />field and the loss of potential economies of scale when one field requires its own <br />parking, fencing, irrigation etc. <br />Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the attached. <br />