The recent Journal column by Jorge and Sharon Ribas doesn’t seem to be able to distinguish between a landfill, an incinerator and a jail on the one hand and an outstanding Soccerplex and an enhanced South Germantown Recreational Park on the other.
Fortunately, Germantown families – and soccer moms, dads and kids throughout the County -- can tell the difference. So, too, can the County Council. That’s why we unanimously voted in favor of the Soccerplex project and the accompanying recreational facilities.
Here’s why.
We have a serious shortage of ballfields in Montgomery County – and a looming shortfall in recreational facilities of all kinds for the burgeoning Germantown area. We doubled ballfields funding in the fiscal year 2000 budget we just approved to $6 million – which will allow 500 more games and practices every week on County fields. But even that doesn’t meet the demand.
The County was presented with an opportunity to forge an innovative public-private partnership with the Maryland Soccer Foundation. The County and the State would kick in $8.8 million to supplement $11 million from the Maryland Soccer Foundation to meet the total project cost of $19.8 million.
The plan is for a 24-field soccer complex – a complex that’ll allow 25,000 youth soccer players from across our County to play their hearts out on fields that aren’t as hard as baked concrete and don’t have ruts.
But that’s not all. The Soccerplex would take up less than a third of the acreage of South Germantown Recreational Park. Visitors to the park will also find the following at their disposal: baseball and softball fields, two community-use fields for soccer and lacrosse, an adventure playground with themes for kids of all ages, indoor/outdoor tennis courts, golf driving range, miniature golf, a nature center, hiking trails connecting to Seneca Creek State Park to the south and Black Hills Regional park to the north, a group picnic area, and a 40-acre Central Park with ponds and fishing.
And -- hopefully -- we’ll be able to place the new Germantown indoor swim center right there in the Park as well.
All is this is worth doing – but our job as a County Council was to examine the proposal sent to us by the Park and Planning Commission and the Maryland Soccer Foundation and supported by the County Executive. It was up to us to see if it made sense for the County and – ever important – made sense for the residents of Germantown.
That’s our job – to listen to the people of this County, put proposals under the proverbial microscope, and make sure that whatever we do we do right – the first time.
Anyone who knows this Council knows we do not shrink from disagreeing with the County Executive – or with other interests – when we think something doesn’t make sense.
A yearlong review of the proposal, highlighted by public meetings and public hearings, gave everyone an opportunity to say their piece. We listened – and took action to address concerns raised by some members of the community. Among the changes we made were:
Some have said that the Maryland Soccer Foundation gets it all and Germantown gets zilch. Wrong again!
Because we were able to leverage private monies to supplement public funds, the non-soccer South Germantown recreational facilities will come on line years before they were scheduled to be completed. That’s particularly good news for the 5,000 homes and 15,000 people who will live right near the park – not to mention the soon-to-be 90,000 residents of Germantown.
Germantown youth soccer players will get to play Saturday games on high-quality Soccerplex fields – and weekday practice times on fields will go to the closer Germantown teams as well.
The Foundation will pay all operating and maintenance costs for the complex and, if revenues exceed expenses, the difference will be plowed back into improvements to the Soccerplex and possibly improvements to old or the building of new fields elsewhere in the County.
Some make it sound as if this all was some deep, dark conspiracy to foist the facilities in South Germantown Recreational Park on an unsuspecting citizenry, while dazzling residents with killer public relations and currying favor with John and Maureen Hendricks.
Sorry to disappoint, but that’s summer fiction, not fact. Step-by-step with the Germantown community, we weighed the pros and cons, made changes in the proposal to make it work better, and gave a unanimous green light to a project that will benefits tens of thousands of Montgomery youth and their families. That’s the real story.
Councilmember Nancy Dacek represents Germantown and the Up County. Councilmember Silverman is the lead Councilmember for Parks and Recreation.