Glitch causes Forest Grove to re-think Lincoln Park proposal

Recreation -- Pacific University to propose putting three sports fields on city parcel at Thatcher and David Hill

By Zack Palmer

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jan 17, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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“From a youth baseball standpoint, we would still have access to the improved facilities at Lincoln Park, plus we would gain two other fields,” said Phil Carow, head of Junior Baseball of Oregon in Forest Grove. “This is great. I hope it goes through.”

The original plan called for Pacific to acquire several pieces of property adjacent to Lincoln Park in an effort to expand the park boundaries and increase parking.

The university was then prepared to spend nearly $8 million to turn the park into a world-class athletic facility, complete with a nine-lane, Olympic-quality track ringing a FieldTurf multi-purpose soccer and lacrosse field, plus brand new baseball and softball complexes with permanent grandstand seating, press boxes and other amenities.

One problem with the original proposal, however, was the space at the north end of the park.

The planned competition softball complex was too small for recreational slow-pitch leagues, and the field at the north end of the park had to be tweaked from its original incarnation to accommodate those leagues. The soccer field also overlapped with the softball field, meaning the two could not be used simultaneously.

Under the new proposal, it would be possible to build two full-size softball diamonds that could be used at the same time, plus a full-size soccer field.

“The biggest advantage, the way I see it, is that softball would be able to play two games at the same time, which is something they can do now at Lincoln Park but wouldn’t have been able to do under the original plan,” said Schumann.

Another potential bonus for city and school officials is that by building the fields on land already owned by the city, Pacific could ultimately save the money it would have spent on land acquisition and kick it back into building top-notch facilities at Thatcher Park.

“It would be nice if that was the case,” said Schumann. “We would be able to put more money into the fields. The fields are really what’s important to this project.”

Pacific had targeted Feb. 1 as the groundbreaking date on the construction at Lincoln Park, and with that date fast approaching officials were forced to act quickly and come up with an alternate plan when the property negotiations broke down.

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