Work on new South Lake Tahoe play fields to start mid-July

The community will soon be seeing green at the site of the South Lake Tahoe Community Playfields on Al Tahoe Blvd.

Thomas Haen Company of South Lake Tahoe, a long-time local General Engineering contractor and two local subcontractors, Ron Fuller Construction and Earth and Stone Landscape were awarded the contract by the City of South Lake Tahoe to create two fields adjacent to the Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) soccer field.

Last year, Burdick Excavation Company and Ed Cook Tree Service cleared the area and prepared it for this next phase.

On July 11 there will be a pre-construction meeting, with the actual construction to start soon after. The contracts will amend the soil and then start installing real grass in large sod rolls according to Chuck Taylor, the City's Associate Civil Engineer. He said it will take about two months to get the grass in and another month and a half to establish the root system of the natural sod.

Automated irrigation will also be installed.

The fields are configured side by side and are FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) standard natural grass soccer fields to meet the requirements for competitive college soccer and to serve multi-sports and play activities for the community.

Recognizing the value of recreation in South Lake Tahoe, along with the need for trails, fields and parks, Measure S passed by voters in 2000. It brought in $6,500,000 to be used to maintain new bike trails, acquire, construct, and equip athletic fields, upgrade of Paradise Park facilities and construction of an ice rink. The measure promised three new fields in South Lake Tahoe, they got one. Now, this new project gives the community the other two through a joint effort between the City and LTCC. The increase in popularity of soccer at the college has resulted in their needing more play time on the one soccer field on their property, leaving the community to need the other fields.