Scottsdale parks get $6.5 million boost

Scottsdale has up to $6.5 million to spend over the next year to replace or add new park lighting and improve sports facilities. The City Council voted last week to approve two contracts, which are also expected to fund lighting at the WestWorld equidome facility.

But the majority of the new or improved lights are planned to be installed at a number of city parks and schools, which are used by both city and private sports leagues for baseball, softball, flag football, kickball, soccer and other sports.

New lighting could also be placed on athletic courts and in parking lots.

Eldorado, Paiute, Cholla, Mountain View and Scottsdale Ranch parks, as well as Yavapai, Pima and Laguna schools, are scheduled to receive the improvements, said Tim Barnard, a community services planning coordinator.

“This is a combination of relighting existing fields and expanding lighting onto additional fields that don’t have lighting to better serve the need we have for youth and adult sports,” Barnard said.

Sports field improvements, such as new backstops, dugouts and fences, are planned or will be completed over the next year at Eldorado and Cholla parks, along with Desert Canyon elementary and middle schools and Pima Elementary, Barnard said.

Barnard said when old lighting is replaced, it’s done so with new technology that reduces the amount of light and glare affecting adjacent neighborhoods.

The city has either met or will meet with neighborhoods before any new lights are installed, he said.

The city is funding the projects with General Fund money and bond funding approved by voters in 2000.