SALEM SOCCER Obstacles hold up complex

Officials hope to end a drainage glitch or at least keep it from getting worse.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The city school district hasn't abandoned plans to build a soccer complex, although the proposed site is plagued with water drainage problems and is still occupied by an unused barn.
Those issues will be dealt with and the project could get under way as early as spring, schools Superintendent Dr. Dave Brobeck said Tuesday.
The district wants to team with a youth soccer booster group to construct soccer fields on a nearly 70-acre school-owned site off Whinnery Road on the city's southeast side. The property is near Southeast Elementary School.
A cost estimate for constructing the fields has yet to be assembled, Brobeck said. Plans call for the district and the booster group to share expenses, he added.
More soccer fields are needed for youth play and for the high school boys and girls teams to have a better place to practice, Brobeck said.
The former farmland seems especially well-suited to that goal, school officials have decided.
What's causing delays
Two obstacles are keeping the effort from progressing. The topography of the site causes water to drain from it onto surrounding property, much of it residential, Brobeck said.
Those living near the site have expressed concern that developing the land into a soccer complex will increase the runoff, Brobeck explained.
The school district wants to prevent worsening the problem, and, if possible, remedy it.
With that in mind, the district plans to have an engineer study the site and recommend how best to handle drainage.
The other difficulty is the presence of an old barn on the site that stems from when the surrounding land was still being farmed.
Months ago, the school board approved having a company dismantle the barn at no cost to the district. The company was to sell the barn material, which is popular among craftsmen and builders, for other purposes.
But the job has not been done, so the school board will likely seek another firm to do the job, Brobeck said.