Recommendation to adopt Plans and Specifications No. R-7002 for the Drake/Chavez Soccer Fields and Greenbelt Project; award a contract to C.S. Legacy Construction, Inc., of Pomona, CA, in the amount of $2,491,377, and authorize a 15 percent contingency in the amount of $373,706, for a total contract amount not to exceed $2,865,083; authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to enter into the contract, including any necessary amendments thereto; and accept and adopt Mitigated Negative Declaration No. 01-13.  (District 1)
Is there any member of the public that was to address this council on 26 c none. Members cast your vote. Motion carries. We already took item 27. Item 28 Report from Public Works and Parks, Recreation and Marine Recommendation to award a contract to cease legacy construction for the Drake Chavez Soccer Fields and Greenbelt Project for a total contractor contract amount not to exceed 2.8 million District one. Mr. Marika? Yes. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This is a very significant project over at the Drake Chavez soccer fields in Greenbelt project. We do have a short PowerPoint presentation that will be given by Craig Beck, our director of Public Works. We also have Marine Night, our director of Parks Rec and Marine, who can answer questions as well. Mr. Beck. Thank you. Good evening, Vice Mayor. Members of the city council. Tonight we bring before you an exciting project. We talked a little bit before when we presented the Long Beach Must about doing a greenbelt connection between Cesar Chavez and Drake Park. This is the first phase of that, what we'll call a master plan. It essentially includes 8.75 acres that we are going to turn into a park. You see the map before you. This includes an artificial turf soccer field for an area that is significantly underserved for soccer fields. There will be large grass multi-use areas associated with the project, open landscaped areas, pedestrian walking trails and onsite parking. If you're familiar with the area, it's currently underdeveloped and basically vacant dirt fields. Part of the project includes an artificial soccer field, as I mentioned. There has been some discussion internally and externally about artificial turf, soccer fields, and I think focusing on whether or not crumb rubber is an appropriate substance to use on these artificial fields. In sometime back, the Parks and Recreation Commission took a position that they believe that all infill material for artificial fields should be organic. So your staff went out and looked out at different options and decided that caulk and sand is the best infill material and are moving forward with this project, including caulk and sand. So what are some of the benefits of using using artificial turf versus a regular grass field? Certainly in our times of water conservation, that is probably the biggest issue that we believe is a benefit of using artificial turf. It significantly reduces the need for water usage. The fields themselves are much more durable, meaning that you can have more playable hours per field. You don't have to take them down, have them not being used and reseed them to allow them to regrow. There's certainly lower maintenance cost for these type of fields and improves usability and performance for soccer players. Unfortunately, given the drought situation and our inability to water some of the fields throughout the parks, you will notice areas where grass isn't growing. And we also have problems with gophers at certain locations. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you for the staff report. And I want to thank city staff, both parks and public works for their their work in this. I know we have had some a lot of discussion on this topic. And so I just want to let you know and really my sentiment, you know, the I've talked to a few residents in the in the area specific to the Wilmore area who will be utilizing this quite frequently. And they're very thrilled to have a new park in the area, specifically greenery, because we haven't had that for some time. So it's exciting to see almost nine acres being completely transformed into a beautiful park space for this for this area . You also did a great job at answering many of the questions relative to maintenance, which I think is important. I wanted to ask another question. Who are our current contractors now? For the park. For park maintenance. For a Drake Park. As a landscape is our current for Drake Park. Okay. And I just want to ensure I know our Willmore community has been concerned with some of the issues in the past. I know we've done a you know, we've we've gone a long way to improve those. So I just want to ensure that our current contractors are very well aware of this this maintenance program I'm seeing here , you know, brushing eight, air raiding, sweeping from 4 to 6 weeks, upwards of four months. So they're very well informed of this this process. And I just want to ensure that that's the case. And actually, that type of maintenance is covered in the contract that. We have with our construction contractor. So there isn't a timeframe that they will be. Maintaining it and performing those duties. Okay. Great. And what is the projection, if any, for saving water? Because I know that that's a huge issue and this would certainly save a significant amount of water. Do we know a percentage or. We can anecdotally look at. A turf field. Versus the synthetic. So an. Annual water usage. For it to keep a turf field as we would like. To keep it nice. And green would be anywhere from 900000. To 1.2 million. Gallons of water in a year. This synthetic turf, this is not an. Irrigated or. A. Field that has. Automatic irrigation in it, but it will need on occasion some watering down and some hosing off. And so that equates to anywhere from about 90000 to 120000 gallons. So it's a significant savings in water use per year. Okay, that's pretty great. And. Okay. And then in addition, I know we went from the discussion of Crumb Rubber and now we're at a discussion with this organic infill. What was how much more does it cost the city to go with this organic infill compared to the crumb rubber? Because I know there was a significant uptick in costs. Councilmember. We looked at different options from rubber, cork and sand and a coconut fiber material. There is an uptick in cost, but it was not significant between the crumb rubber. There's roughly a $300,000 charge for the turf field component, and we attribute about 100,000 for the organic versus the crumb rubber. Okay. Great. And I think those were all of my questions currently. I know I think some of my other colleagues may have some more questions, but I want to thank you. And I know many of my residents, I'll just reiterate, are very happy to see this. I know they'll still be questions and this really sets the tone for the rest of the city. But it's certainly a very good step in the right direction in terms of what we need to do for many of our parks. So thank you very much. I'm supportive of this project. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. I want to, first of all, congratulate our Councilmember Gonzalez and her residents for getting a new park and having some greater opportunity for active recreation. I did have one question because I do see that this could be something that we move forward with in other areas of the city. What? How much? Or is there a benchmark or best practice for the use of court in seeing in other cities? Do we have any examples that we can look to? Today. Catherine Roston So we did reach out to Field Turf USA, which is the largest manufacturer of artificial turf material in in the U.S. They do have a number of cork and sand turf fields going in in Northern California and some scheduled in Southern California, but none currently are installed in Southern California. So we'll be one of the first. Councilman Andrews. Yes. I just want to congratulate Council Councilman. Woman You know, Lena, for this because the fact that you and I think it came in the right time, good time, because all our kids are really seriously so into soccer and this project here will really save us a lot of water to use. And also it'll help the kids who don't have a place to play and can be there from sunup to sundown. And that's a good slogan is, you know, high tide kids, a good kid. And this will really definitely keep them tired. Thank you very much of this project. Councilwoman Gonzalez. I mean, you're anger. I'm sorry. She can go first. No, thank you, Mayor. I want to congratulate the Parks Recreation Department for putting this forward as well, because they really did some research in trying to get the right type of artificial field out there where we have a couple of other projects in line. I know I have one in my in my district with Advocate Park. We're looking at the possibility of putting in an artificial turf out there for our soccer fields. And I know that if Councilmember Mongeau were here, she'd also say the same thing in terms of what the artificial turf is going to be going into her area as well. So I want to also add my congratulatory remarks to Councilmember Gonzales for being the first to put it out there, and at least it gives us an opportunity to evaluate it, look at it and see how tired the kids get and take it from there. So thank you very much. Thank you, staff. Councilman Gonzalez. Yes, and of course, I forgot a question. This is more related to the Pembridge house because they had been formally asking about parking areas for a near their their their property because of many events that they do. And so I don't know if that was worked into this plan at all or if that's even. This had been years ago that they'd been talking about this. I know they'd talked to Ora before when he was here, and I think George when he was here in the Parkside. But since we have two new directors, I'm expressing this on the dais now. And my understanding is it hasn't been contemplated within this design. But it's something that we can chat a little bit off line about and. See what the issues are and what their needs are and how that works. Thank you very much. I guess, Councilmember, I just add to that that this project does include a parking lot and there are walking paths that will allow you to walk from that lower level up to the upper level park, which is where the Bainbridge House is. So while it may not be adjacent to their property, certainly if they were going to have an event, somebody could park in that lower parking lot and walk up to that event at the Bainbridge House. Okay. Thank you. I saw the lot and I didn't know that it was I didn't know how far close it was. But that may help. But if there's additional information I get from them all, I'll chat with both of you offline. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Councilmember Supernova. So my understanding is this hasn't been tested in in Southern California, this particular organic material. Do we have data from where it's been utilized in areas of the country with similar climate conditions, temperatures, etc.? Cancel membership or not, we do not have data. However, what we did do is extended warranty with the manufacturer. This field is fully warranted for eight years for full replacement. So if it fails in that time, we will have a for a new field replaced. Okay. Thank you. Is there any member of the public that wishes to address Council on item 28? Please come forward. Good evening to this very esteemed council. I'm Pastor Eddie Jones, president of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association. But I do own property in Long Beach. And my concern is, is that since this type of material has never been used, we want to make sure that it's held healthy, too, that it doesn't cause cancer or any other kind of sickness. And it's a good thing that kids like to play soccer, but. Kids also like to play football and basketball and. You know, other games. So I hope that this park is not only a soccer field and not only a place for soccer, but a place for basketball football. Whatever other games that you can think of, the kids can play outside of the park. And also I hope and pray that it has exercising apparatuses for other people who like to work on their cardiovascular system. And I hope it's. Safe Safety, which is number one in any city. Safety is a priority. So we hope that this will light it and that it can. Have a safe environment. That's the priority. So we know that the field has never been used anywhere else in the United States or anywhere else. But we just want to make sure that it doesn't do anything to affect anybody health wise, whether it's their heart, pituitary glands, lungs, whatever. We just want to make sure healthy is the priority safety and healthy. And also to most of all, I'm here tonight not only about the city council meeting for the park and everything, but also. The crime and the shooting they took place last night. So I'll wait till public comment, but very concerned and hopefully we can all work together to build these type of parks all over the city, Long Beach. And if we keep our kids busy, maybe we'll cut down on crime. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. And Cantrell and I have bombarded your offices with questions about this, some of which have been. Answer today. I'm very much in favor of new soccer fields. I think the straight park is extension is a wonderful idea, but I still have some questions about. There's no mention of cost to install this field. Or any comparison to cost for property prepared for properly prepared natural grass fields. I'm assuming you didn't make that comparison because you're looking at saving water. Artificial. Fields do need water. Today it was stated that 90 to 120000 gallons would be needed for the artificial field. I was wondering, are you putting a sprinkler system under it? Which is what? The artificial turf field that I have seen in Hawaiian Gardens has a sprinkler system. Otherwise, you're watering the rest of the park. So this is just a small area that you're going to be saving water. I can't believe there's that much difference. There's no mention of washing these fields, which is necessary to wash off blood, vomit, sweat, dirt. And also there is no. Indication that you're going to fence this field. I have given each one of you a copy of a picture. This is at Hawaiian Gardens. You can see they have a fence around it. They have a full time recreation person standing guard at the soccer field, allowing only the soccer players and the coaches and the refs to go on to the field. The parents and people watching the games sit on bleachers. The players are not allowed to take any kind of sports drink food. All they can take is water because these fields are like a rug. If you spill sports drinks or gum or food on them, they have to be cleaned. Which is not what you have to do with grass. So since. There is no other place that you can see. One of these fields. Thank you, Miss Cantrell. Your time is up. I think you should make a lot of more questions about what's going in here. Thank you. Thank. There's been a motion. Oh, sorry. Thank you. Hi there. I think I am going to second the motion with that, Mr. Councilmember, and I was suggesting as it relates to some hard data. I am a former world class athlete that actually brought soccer to Long Beach. And one of the concerns that I have whenever you're playing on artificial surface and it hasn't been addressed by any information that I've been requesting, is a study on the injuries that takes place. It's been my experience and it's been documented in a few places. I, I actually spoke to the, uh, the guy, uh, at Catalina. He said that, uh, that he's aware that, uh, there's about three times greater injuries on artificial turf as it relates to serious injuries regarding ACL injuries. I've been asking, uh, both the Department of Public Works and the, uh, parks for information, and I haven't been getting anything from them. There's just been a complete lack of information regarding this this project. We have a lot of questions. I'm not going to get into all the details in a in a minute and a half, but none of them have been answered. One of the problems that we're having is that there's a trust issue that we have in the past regarding artificial turf as it relates to the parks. It's not with these people, but it has been persistent. Just the push for artificial turf, the wish for more durable material in the face of the fact that we may not even have those numbers to justify the, uh, the durability, the need for the durable surfaces. I'm just asking that that we can, if we can, um. I mean, things like price analysis, we have documentation, apparently that that tells us we chose this particular artificial surface over the others. But we've seen no technical analysis of that. The reason why we did this, that it's required by law is public law. We've been trying to get it and it's just we can't find it anywhere. Disinformation has to exist, but it's like a cover up. Nobody's giving us this information. It's backup information that we want to see that justifies the report. I'm not saying that they're lying or anything. We want to see where they base this stuff off of. What's the difference between durability and the warranty? There's a difference. I also used to be a government contractor, contracting officer. There's a lot of things that's missing. All I'm asking is that we delay this decision a bit so the public can get some information that they've been asking for as it relates to this. But otherwise, I love this park. It's a great thing. I just have a problem with the the artificial turf that we're looking for. And I do that. And we should compare it with grass, have some kind of a comparison and do that. Thank you. Very good you, Kirk, as the addressed when we start talking about sports that take place on terra firma. I know very little on water. Yes. But what I've heard here. Seems to me should rate should raise in any intelligent community some red flag sufficient enough to follow the advice that the people have made. And step back and take a take a look. There's going to be something for in so a few weeks more getting more information can only help the issue and not hurt it. Thank you. Thank you. There's been a motion and a second. Councilman Gonzalez. I just want to thank the speakers today for their comments. I know that my Willmore community could not be here tonight because they have been currently going on right now as we speak. But in speaking with them, they they do remain supportive of this field and would like to go forward. So I ask that my council colleagues support this item. Thank you. And Q Members, cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 29 Report from Technology and Innovation Recommendation to award a contract to Long Beach Community Action Partnership for the Operation of Public Access Television in Long Beach in an amount equivalent to one third of the public, educational and government funds available each year citywide.