Funds for CCSN soccer field may go to city park

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

Money initially planned for a women's collegiate soccer complex may be spent to develop additional park space in Las Vegas, city leaders said.

In the wake of the collapse of a plan to build a soccer complex and 2-acre neighborhood park at the Community College of Southern Nevada's West Charleston campus, City Council members are exploring ways to spend $700,000 that was the city's contribution to the park.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald had initial discussions with residents this week during a neighborhood meeting, which included Councilman Larry Brown, about building a 140-acre regional park in the area of Buffalo Drive and Washington Avenue.

Although as much as four miles away, city officials say such a park could service residents near the community college, as well as those living in wards served by Boggs McDonald, Brown and councilmen Michael McDonald and Lawrence Weekly.

"There perhaps could be opportunities to try to reprogram, replan and rethink how we can deliver the services to those constituents who have those needs," she said.

A disappointed McDonald announced Wednesday that the college would be unable to fund the project, which was estimated by college officials to cost $1.9 million. The college had been considering scaling back the project, but, even then, it was estimated to cost $500,000 above what was allocated by the city.

McDonald had teamed up with Mike Meyer, the former athletic director at the college, to build the complex last year. Meyer resigned in August after admitting to a racial slur that was heard by the wife of Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas.

McDonald on Tuesday met with CCSN President Ron Remington, who said that spending $500,000 to build the complex would place the college in a financial hardship.

"The last thing I would ever do is put anybody in a position where they would have to hold a position or fire a teacher or not allow a professor to teach because we put in soccer fields," McDonald said.

Remington said that in light of the school's reduced budget and rapid growth, the soccer field was not a realistic project at the present time. The school's budget is expected to be squeezed even tighter because of the state's ailing economy.

"We're just putting it on hold," Remington said. "That's a lot of money to sink into a soccer field, especially when CCSN is expanding so quickly."

McDonald said the nearby neighbors will still have much-needed park space, with construction beginning in January on a park at Redwood Street and Oakey Boulevard. McDonald is exploring the idea of making the park a memorial for firefighters, much like a police memorial park in the northwest.

Regardless of where the funding goes, McDonald said the city must keep its promise to provide more park space for residents in his ward. He considered the soccer complex a mere setback.

"It is a setback because I had a vision to build the first women's collegiate soccer fields," he said. "And someday we will."

Sun reporter Jennifer Knight contributed to this story.