Four more ball fields proposed for new park

The eight new ball fields at the new Spanish River Sports Complex will expand to a dozen if the city agrees to a request by the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District.

“The community has an opportunity to build four more rectangular athletic fields to service the needs of our residents by extending our interlocal agreement with this additional land, so we can proceed while the contractor is on site and save millions of dollars in taxpayer money,” Commissioner Earl Starkoff said in an interview.

The district wants to accommodate increased requests from leagues, and sports such as rugby and lacrosse, which tend to get squeezed out.

Starkoff, on behalf of the district, has asked City Council for a piece of property along the railroad tracks between the new soccer fields and city’s firefighting training facility.

The 85- to 90-acre park, also called De Hoernle Park, across from the Spanish River Public Library is almost finished, and the district wants to take advantage of having the contractor still working there, Starkoff said.

The interlocal agreement he referred to is an arrangement for the city to provide the land and the district to pay for building the park.

No-shows cancel Downtown Advisory meeting

When only six of 12 members showed up, the first meeting of the reconfigured Boca Raton Downtown Advisory Committee was called off Feb. 1.

The city’s downtown manager Ruby Childers said the first order of business required an election of officers and without a quorum, that wasn’t possible.

Both of the new appointees and four of the reappointed members were absent, but all but one let the city know they wouldn’t be there. One member called and said he got out of a meeting late, and could run over to City Hall, but Childers said they could only wait a certain time period until after the meeting was supposed to start.

Childers said that was the first time the meeting had ever been called off.

The committee is a citizens’ volunteer advisory board that City Council relies on heavily for feedback on construction guidelines, programs and issues like parking in the downtown. Members apply for open seats and City Council appoints them for a specific term.