Vernon council reject $240K Marshall Fields upgrade; opt for fence instead

VERNON – A $240,000 plan to revamp Marshall Fields was rejected by Vernon city council today which instead opted to just build a fence on the site in an effort to please both dog owners and soccer players.

A request to build a fence dividing off-leash dog owners from soccer players had been put forward by council earlier this year after delegations from both dog walkers and soccer players had come before council asking for a solution to off-leash dogs on the soccer fields.

Following the delegations, Vernon council voted for an environmental study and asked staff to cost out the building a fence.

The recommendation from staff was to spend $240,000 on the park.

"All we wanted was a fence," Coun. Scott Anderson told the meeting.

Coun. Brian Quiring echoed Anderson's concerns.

"Can't we just go back to building a fence for $52,000," he said. The report had estimated the cost of the chain link fence to be $52,000.

City staff told councillors the environment report had 13 recommendations and the plan looked at the long term use of the park.

Along with a fence, the report also included adding an extra soccer field, 70 more parking spaces, as well as substantial work on the banks of the creek that are currently eroding. The plan also included protections for great basin spadefoot toads that live in certain areas on the site.

While council agreed to look at the long term use of the park was important, moving forward with building a fence to prevent dogs from running onto to soccer was the pressing issue.

Council voted unanimously to move forward with the construction of a fence at the site and to deal with the report's other recommendations individually.

Staff are set to prepare a new quote for the construction of a fence at Marshall Fields for council to vote on at its next meeting.

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