Agenda - 03-18-2008-11b - Laserfiche WebLink

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v~~~. a P ~~ ~''x.. Orange County \ Recreation & Parks November 27, 2007 ORANGE COUNTY RECREATION & PARKS P.O. Box 8181 300 West Tryon Street Hillsborough, NC 27278 Phone: 919-245-2660 Fax 919-644-3042 Ms. Anita Jones-McNair, Director Recreation and Parks Department Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St. Carrboro, NC 27510 Dear Anita, As you may recall, during discussions with soccer leaders last spring, the idea came up to install artificial surfaces on a soccer field. The soccer leaders identified Smith Community Field as an ideal site. During initial meetings with partners and soccer representatives, Triangle United Soccer Association, Triangle Futbol Club and CHAC Soccer each offered to contribute funds,in support of this project. The potential contributors have requested that, in exchange for their donation toward the project, facility use and lighting fees be waived for their organization. For example, if a club were able to contribute $100,000, they would have free use of the field(s) until $100,000 worth of credit is used. Initially, I had the understanding that you agreed to this proposal and that Carrboro would be willing to absorb this potential loss of revenue, thereby contributing to the project. The County Manager has instructed me to be sure that I am correct in this understanding. Presumably, Carrboro would also consider raising fees if the fields were to be converted to artificial. I believe that a survey would show higher rental fees for this type of field. This might help reduce the impact of this loss of revenue. Available funding for this project is virtually non-existent, and would only be available if the BOCC chooses to divert funds from another project. Current estimates for artificial surfaces on both fields are in the $1.6 - $1.75 million dollar range. In order to reduce potential costs for the Smith project as much as possible, we would also like to request that you inquire as to whether