Langford council signed an agreement to have the booking services for its two new turf fields run by its existing contractor Performance Plus Hockey.
The deal covers the new field at Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School and the under-construction field at the North Langford Elementary School on South Skirt Mountain – which is set to be completed in the early spring, according to Yari Nielsen, director of the parks department. The school hasn’t got provincial funding yet, but the Sooke School District already owns the land.
The City of Langford has a usage agreement with SD62, which saw the city pay $1.15 million towards the construction of the turf field and installation of lights around the field at Centre Mountain. It also fronted the $650,000 cost of a field at the North Langford site, which SD62 is set to pay back when the school gets provincial funding.
Performance Plus currently handles the bookings for the city’s other turf fields, Goudy Field and Starlight Stadium. The contract will cost $1,850 per month per field. Priority will be given to city events outside of school hours, when only the school can use the field. Then comes youth sports users, and then public user groups on a first-come-first-served basis.
Estimates from a city staff report said each field could make $240,000 a year in revenue if fully booked.
Couns. Keith Yacucha and Mary Wagner both said during Monday’s (Feb. 6) council meeting that they’d heard concerns from residents about user groups being unable to access field space, but both said this was the most efficient way to run the service now and could be revisited in the future.
Langford has been struggling to keep up with the demand for field space over the past year.
The West Shore Warriors Football team was briefly looking at relocating to Saanich after the club couldn’t find field space to practice and neighbours complained about the noise from practices held at Belmont Secondary. But a temporary solution was found where the team could practice on the field at Spencer Middle School in Langford, back in October. The team is set to practice at Centre Mountain starting Feb. 14 now that field is open, and then move back to Belmont after the time change in April.
Editor’s note: this story has been updated from its original version to correct an error. The turf field at North Langford Elementary is still under construction. We apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.
READ MORE: West Shore football program back on Langford field
READ MORE: New turf field coming to future Langford school
Do you have a story tip? Email: vnc.editorial@blackpress.ca.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.