[Vision2020] Playfield

[James Reynolds]

Shawn,

Thank you for the information, it is much appreciated. The university 
physics department runs the observatory and although I don't know much about 
what they study it's the stuff that gets men on the moon and ships to Mars. 
I think that today's physicists would need at least introductory level 
knowledge of astral physics so it is probably considered critical to the 
department's educational and research goals. What I heard is that if the 
field lights were on at night their equipment is so sensitive that the 
Southern horizon would be washed out completely.  The observatory has been 
in place for at least the thirty years that I have been in Moscow so they do 
have squatters rights and it isn't something that can be moved.

I am, as I am sure most of Moscow's residents are, happy for the success of 
your program and it would be good if it could have all the resources it 
could use. Perhaps the site selection is not completely appropriate for the 
ball fields but I think they would be great to have at that site even 
without the lights. the two additional Ripken fields ought to be a great 
boon to your scheduling problems even if you cannot schedule night games. 
All of us parents have had to cut work to attend our children's games, that 
is part of the "game" for us to be inconvenienced so. I think having the 
parents inconvenienced is better than having the children up trying to 
perform late into the evening.







>From: "Shawn Clabough" <shawnc at outtrack.com>
>To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Playfield
>Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 21:19:28 -0700
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
>[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of James Reynolds
>Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 7:13 AM
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Playfield
>
>Matt,
>
>I wasn't part of the committee but judging from the makeup it seems that
>the
>interested parties were all engaged so I am allowing their compromise to
>
>stand for me also. Of course some folk wanted lights or it would not
>have
>been an issue but the final thought of the committee was that the lights
>
>would cause more harm than good. I think that this was driven most by
>the
>fact that the UI has the observatory on the golf course hill and the
>southern sky is very important to that program. It seems reasonable that
>the
>lights not be put up if they would impinge upon an existing use of that
>horizon.
>
>I am also not so sure that the lights would be much utilized by the
>children. It seems as if the lights were more wanted by the adult league
>
>teams and the new fields are supposed to be for the children.
>
>James Reynolds
>
>-------------
>
>As I do the scheduling for the Cal Ripken league (8-12 year olds), I
>will speak to this.  I will first say that I am happy that there was a
>compromise reached and happy that the number of fields was kept and the
>committee acknowledged that there is still additional need and for some
>location to have lights.
>
>As for the kids using the lights, I would have to disagree that they
>would not use them.  I could put them to good use.  As it is now, during
>the first half of the season, I schedule games at 4pm and 6pm so that
>the later game can finish by 8pm just as the sun goes down.  This is not
>the best because the 4pm games causes parents to have to leave work
>and/or have someone else take their child to the game and they miss most
>or all of the game.  For the 6pm game, the shadows do get long towards
>the end of the game and it becomes hard to see the ball.  For the second
>half of the season, I switch to 5pm and 7pm game times to make it easier
>on parents, but lighting during the 7pm game would still be beneficial.
>
>I would like to thank the committee for their work on this and look
>forward to having the fields ready for use.  There are 19 teams (over
>200 children) in the Cal Ripken league this year and finding fields to
>get everyone a fair amount of games can be difficult and these new
>fields will help.  The league has been expanding every year, so having
>them acknowledge need beyond these fields is appreciated.
>
>Shawn Clabough
>
>
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