Mayor Bill Mauro is looking for council’s approval tonight to set up a special committee to look at the proposed $30 million indoor turf facility.
The mayor tells us the committee will set some guidelines and report back to council on what members will look at.
He says there are no timelines but admits there are some areas which will need a decision sooner rather than later but feels “a few of the pieces will be relatively easy to figure out.”
The mayor expects the committee’s work to last about three months.
City administration is going to look at getting $4 million dollars worth of engineering work done prior to getting the facility built.
The search for an indoor turf facility was spurred on following the collapse of the Sports Dome on the CLE Grounds in a November 2016 snowstorm.
It threw the soccer community into chaos since both men’s and women’s clubs were forced to cancel their seasons because there was no place to play.
In 2017, local soccer clubs were given a glimmer of hope with news Soccer Northwest was trying to get a temporary facility set up at a vacant sawmill on Maureen Street but that fell through because of a legal roadblock.
Fast forward to early 2018, when city council started the process by voting to build such a complex, which was kicked into high gear after city administration began working behind the scenes to make a reality at Chapples Park.
Mayor Mauro has made building the turf facility a top priority throwing his full support behind it.
