November 8th: The City of Bainbridge Island issued the permit for the project! We have the funding to start construction. Construction can start as soon as the paperwork is complete, hopefully in about one month. We still have about $10,000 left to meet our goal.

October 8th: The City Council voted 5 to 1 FOR the Inter-local Agreement to transfer $300,000 from the City to the BI Metropolitan Parks and Recreation District. Barry Peters, Debbie Vancil, Chris Snow, and Kjell Stocknes voted “yes”. Bill Knobloch voted “no”. Kim Brackett was not in attendance. This means Fields For Our Future, the project to renovate fields #4 and #5 at Battle Point Park , has the funding needed to start construction. We are awaiting the decision on the permit.

If you would like to thank the City Council members and the Mayor for their support, here are their email addresses:
Mayor Darlene Kordonowy: Mayor@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
City Council Members: council@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
OR
Bill Knobloch: billknobloch@aol.com
Chris Snow: csnow@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
Kjell Stoknes: kjell041645@yahoo.com
Deborah Vancil: dvancil@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
Barry Peters: bpeters@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
Hilary Franz: hfranz@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us
Kim Brackett: kbrackett@ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us

Thanks to all the players and their parents who have come to the City Council meetings (there have been five of them) and emailed their City Council members.

Sept. 12, 2008: The Interlocal Agreement for the transfer of $300,000 from the City to the Parks has been worked out. It is scheduled to come in front of the City Council October 8th. Please come to the City Council meeting and/or email your City Council Members at that time. There will be a mass email sent at the appropriate time.

Fall '08 Update:

Fundraising Update
Fieldturf, Atlas Track & Tennis, and Premier Fields have given the Parks Department a firm bid of $1,438,894 to renovate Battle Point Park fields #4 and #5. This bid includes sales tax but excludes the cost to install a perimeter fence and handicapped-accessible pathways, which will add approximately $50,000 more to the total amount. That means we are looking at a total approximate cost of just under $1,490,000 based on this current bid. As you may recall, the City of Bainbridge Island has allocated $300,000 in its current 2008 budget to help fund this field renovation project. That funding, together with the funds raised by BIYSC and pre-existing bond funding provided by the Parks, total $1,414,850. Our current shortfall, therefore, between the current cost estimate and the anticipated funding, is just under $75,000. While a variety of factors could impact this figure, we are hopeful that we may be close to reaching our funding goals.

City funding status
As noted above, thanks to your advocacy, the $300,000 from the City of Bainbridge Island is still in the 2008 budget. However, to transfer the funds from the City to the Parks, the two entities have to sign an Inter-Local Agreement. The Parks and the City are currently working through the details of that Inter-Local Agreement. The Inter-Local Agreement should be on the City Council agenda in September. We will need your advocacy again (your emails and coming to the meeting) at that time.

Permit status
The Parks applied for a Grade and Fill permit for the field renovation on November 28, 2007. On June 14, 2008, after more than 6 months of review, the City of Bainbridge Island issued an initial Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) on the Parks’ permit application. On July 12, 2008 the City withdrew its initial MDNS and reissued it with additional conditions. BIYSC has appealed the City’s re-issued MDNS because we believe at least one of the newly imposed conditions is inconsistent with applicable law. We have requested an expedited hearing.

Initiative status
The media spent a lot of time covering a voter initiative to outlaw artificial surface fields on Bainbridge Island and to impose a sales tax to raise funds for grass fields. The City Attorney determined in July that the initiative petition was not valid and could not be submitted to the voters at the November election. The issue went in front of the City Council in August. The City Council decided that the High School field and the Fields For Our Future field would be grandfathered in, even if the petition went through.

We are getting ever closer!

Feb 22 , 2008: The FFOF Breakfast raised $45,000. Thanks goes to Liz Midas and Christine Crowley for putting together such an inspiring event. Thanks to all of you for making it so successful!

Sept. 12, 2007: The City of Bainbridge Island Council members voted 5 to 2 to include $300,000 in their Capital Facilities Plan for 2008. It is not final until the budget is finalized. Thanks goes to all the supporters who emailed their City Council members and who came to the meeting. Through this effort, the City Council members realized how important youth activities are for the community.

Sept. 1, 2007: 35 teams gathered to compete in the 4th Annual Wooden Spoon 4 v. 4 Tournament. It was sponsored by Viking Bank, Diadora and Tekk Goals. The event raised $7,300 for fields! Thanks also to The Soccer Pitch, Bainbridge Bakers, Costco, Island Fitness, Island Sports, Sport Haus, Coastal Sportswear, The Paperie, Rite Aid, Dr. Okunami, Bon Bon, New Motion and Ace Hardware.

April 27th Update: Fields For Our Future was ranked 12th out of 76 parks projects throughout the State of Washington by the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation. The grant request was fully funded for $300,000 by the State Legislature! This gives the project $750,000. We are half-way to our goal.

Thanks so much to the 70 soccer and lacrosse players and parents who came out to City Hall to support funding for Fields For Our Future. It was very important to have everyone there, and we represented ourselves very well. The City Council voted 3 to 3 on the motion for funding for Fields For Our Future. This meant that the motion failed. Jim Llewelyn, Deborah Vancil and Nezam Tooloee voted for it and Bill Knobloch, Knell Stoknes and Chris Snow voted against it. Bob Scales had to abstain because he is on the BIYSC board. Meanwhile, we continue our fundraising efforts. The goal is to complete fundraising by the end of November of 2007 in order to open the fields in September of 2008.

February 2007: The Change for Fields kickoff party February 24th raised $4,000 for the Fields For Our Future campaign to renovate the sand fields at Battlepoint Park.  This included a $1,000 matching contribution by Viking Bank.  The event was fun with free ice cream, a bake sale, and a chance to dunk your soccer or lacrosse coach.

Fall of 2006: BIMPRD was notified that the project placed 12th out of 76 total parks projects throughout Washington State. BIMPRD will be notified by the State of Washington whether the grant is funded in March 2007.

June 2006: BIMPRD and BIYSC applied to the Committee for Outdoor Recreation for a $300,000 grant.

December 21, 2006: Memorandum of Understanding Signed. The Memorandum of Understanding between Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Parks and Recreation District (BIMPRD) and Bainbridge Island Youth Soccer Club (BIYSC) to renovate fields #4 and #5 at Battlepoint Park with infill systems was signed.
BIMPRD agreed to:
-Apply for permits
-Project management
BIYSC agreed to:
-Fundraise for amount of bid plus 10%