THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604030127
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Western Branch residents, whose appetites for fun continue to grow, now have a new outlet for their energies.
City Parks and Recreation officials dedicated a new park Saturday, complete with five lighted, multi-purpose athletic fields and two basketball half-courts.
The park, on Portsmouth Boulevard, takes up about 32 acres of the 80-acre site surrounding the Western Branch Community Recreation Center, said city Recreation Superintendent Judy N. Alexander.
The new fields will be used for organized sports, with priority given to Parks and Recreation Department athletic programs, Alexander said.
Right now, kids' spring soccer teams are using the fields. After that, there will be girls' softball, then kids' fall soccer, football, cheerleading and some adult sports, Alexander said.
But even though the new fields are spoken for, the site includes a playground, walking trails, a picnic area and open spaces for pick-up athletic games, which anyone can use anytime.
The Western Branch community center opened in 1980. The playground, picnic and walking areas opened around 1983.
Alexander said Parks and Recreation originally had intended to use the remaining land for more ``passive'' activities, ``which means the park was going to be kind of open, and people could kind of come use it when they wanted.''
``But, of course, as trends changed in the community, and we became stronger in athletic activities, we saw the need to have more active fields,'' she said.
The city budgeted about $2.4 million for the new fields, basketball courts, lights and more than 350 new parking spaces, Alexander said. There are plans to add volleyball or tennis courts later.
``We're not sure which,'' she said.
The improvements will be welcome in a city where an exploding population has created pressure for more public recreational sites. Unlike other cities, Chesapeake has no public pools or 18-hole golf courses. There are few bicycle or jogging trails. And demand for outdoor athletic fields has outstripped the city's ability to meet it.
There has been a little progress recently, however.
In January, the city purchased 225 acres of bare farmland and forest in Deep Creek for $1.6 million. The land will be used for a park with baseball fields and other recreational facilities.
Alexander said the Western Branch area is ready for its full-service facility.
``It's the second-largest area as far as our youth program in the city,'' she said. ``And we also have a boys' pony baseball, a Western Branch Little League and adult programs. So there is constant need for fields. And the community center has high use . . . from the young all the way up to the senior citizens.'' by CNB