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Renovations have begun on the sports fields throughout San Ramon in preparation for the upcoming Little League season in the spring, including those in San Ramon’s Central Park, which have been closed since last year due to small pieces of glass having mistakenly been spread with compost into the grass fields.
According to San Ramon’s parks program manager Matt Early, all skinned infields, with the exception of Central Park baseball field Nos. 2 and 3, will be ready for play on Feb. 1, and all turf infields will be ready to open for play on March 1, just in time for baseball.
Central Park fields 2 and 3 will need to be resodded in order to remove all glass from the field — a process that has been delayed by recent rain and will take approximately eight weeks to settle after completion, most likely pushing the estimated finishing date past March 1.
Baseball fields will continue to be renovated by rebuilding pitcher’s mounds, adding necessary infield material, replacing pitcher’s mounds and home plates, and repairing any broken irrigation systems.
City staff have been removing damaged sections of fields and preparing them for new seed and sod throughout the city. As of Wednesday, over 5,000 square feet of sod has been added at Athan Downs, Memorial Park, San Ramon Sports Park and Richard Village Green Park.
During the past month, staff have also applied 200 pounds of seed and covered the seed with 20 yards of topdressing.
In addition to the baseball fields the soccer fields at Athan Downs have also been de-thatched, aerated, over-seeded and top-dressed.
Central Park’s fields have been closed since Sept. 18 of last year, after staff found the glass littering compost that had been used to maintain the fields luster.
Compost for the purpose of field maintenance is usually made from yard trimmings and food scraps — in order to maintain fields in an environmentally friendly manner. The contaminated compost in Central Park was provided by the city’s outgoing waste services provider, Waste Management of Alameda County.
The renovation of fields is a regular process that city staff execute every year to varying degrees based on the use of the past year, Early said. This year the renovations will cost San Ramon taxpayers just under $15,000.
That price is excluding fields at Central Park which assistant city manager Eric Figueroa said Waste Management will be paying for, adding that the fields would have been closed for the remainder of the winter regardless of the contaminated compost.
Waste Management will no longer provide garbage service to the city as of Oct. 1, with the City Council opting not to renew its contract in favor of a replacement company, Alameda County Industries of San Ramon, Inc.