Neighbors complain about use of Kaiser fields

Deirdre Newman

When Barbara Guy looked out of her window this past Saturday morning,

she was appalled to see parents of children who use the fields at

Kaiser Elementary School leading their children to the greenbelt

between her house and the soccer field to go to the bathroom.

Cheryl Carson, who lives in the same Sycamore Park development,

says she has seen children climbing the trees on her street and throw

rocks.

Carson and Guy are two out of 12 homeowners in the Sycamore Park

Homeowners Assn. who say they are fed up with problems from weekend

use of the field like inconsiderate behavior and parking and noise

issues. The rest of the homeowners feel the same way, Guy said.

They want the city to reduce the use of the fields to only a few

times a month to restore the quality of life in the neighborhood they

feel has been eroded.

“What has happened is that the population around us has grown

tremendously and the [fields] are just not large enough to support

it,” Guy said. “Our concern with Kaiser is that it’s not a sports

arena.”

Ken Sipes, the city’s recreation coordinator, said staff members

is working to address the residents’ concerns about parking and the

restrooms. He pointed out that the City Council already restricted

the field use from five fields to three on the weekends.

That restriction, imposed in 1996, was in response to previous

complaints by Sycamore Park residents. The city also staggered the

use of the three fields, so all three would not be in play at once.

Soccer players typically use the fields on Saturdays during the fall

and baseball players typically use the fields on Sundays.

While that alleviated the concerns for a while, Guy and Carson

said the problems starting arising again a few years ago and this

time the leagues, like AYSO, are not being as cooperative.

“It’s kind of a feeling where they used to work with us because

they lived so close and it’s now with the attitude of -- they take

over, they don’t care about us,” Carson said. “They feel they’re

entitled to do whatever they want whenever they want and they just

tell us they’re going to play every weekend and if we don’t like it,

‘tough.’”

Chris Sarris, the regional commissioner of AYSO Region 97, said

the neighbors haven’t contacted him about any problems.

“I don’t get it,” Sarris said. “They pretty much have gotten

everything they’ve wanted. The kids have to use something, especially

now with [the district facility improvement program], where we’re

losing fields. We’re willing to be good neighbors and I thought we

were.”

He said he found it hard to believe that AYSO players would turn

the greenbelt area behind the homes into a toilet, since most of them

are girls under age 10 and there is a port-a-potty on the field.

Sipes is working on getting bathrooms at Kaiser School open for

the soccer players now that the nearby Boys & Girls Club facility is

no longer open on Saturdays.

The long-term goal is to get some semi-permanent restrooms for the

fields, Sipes said.

He is also encouraging parents to park at Kaiser School’s parking

lot, which has been unavailable for the past few months due to

district improvement construction work.

“Now that’s been alleviated, so it will take some growing pains to

get people back to their old ways of parking in that area,” Sipes

said.