It's been five years from an idea to the opening kick-off, but Pender Harbour now has a competition level sports field.
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) staff officially opened the field at a ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 26.
John Rees, former director for Pender Harbour-Egmont, was on hand for the opening, and rightly so. When Rees first campaigned for the regional district board in 2002, he pledged to work to bring a sports field to the area.
"I had some feeling for soccer, having played over 30 years. I kind of took it under my wing, and we were able to accomplish that," he said.
Rees was able to help get the addition of a sports field in Pender Harbour included in the SCRD parks master plan, completed in 2004.
Finding land big enough and flat enough for a regulation size field was no easy task in hilly Pender Harbour. SCRD staff initially looked into purchasing plots of Crown land, but the province was only willing to sell the land at market price - well above the budget set aside for the $1.3-million project.
"Fortunately, the board of Pender Harbour Lions Club offered space," Rees said.
The Lions Club was able to sublease an ideal plot to the SCRD next to their park and recreation area. Beyond that, the SCRD, working with the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB), was able to get an adjoining 2.5-hectare plot of Crown land that can be set aside for future recreation planning.
"Sechelt Indian Band and Chief Feschuk agreed to go along with the application so we secured that land as well. Not only do we have what could be a great competition sports field, we have probably all of the recreational land set aside for the community for the future. It's a double bonus," Rees said.
Sam Adams, SCRD parks planning co-ordinator, who worked on the project, said the land deals with the Lions Club and SIB made the project possible at an unbelievable price.
"We feel, for $1.3 million, we got a $2.5 million project, if you include the costs of the properties," Adams said.
Also fitting into the funding are a $315,000 grant in Olympic Legacy funds, donations from the Painted Boat for electricity hookups and $83,000 in federal gas tax money for a state of the art environmental drainage system.
David Rogers, a forward for Coast Progressive United team, said the field has changed the way soccer is played in Pender Harbour.
"We used to play soccer at the high school. It is gravel, short, lumpy. The Bananas soccer players joke that even the elk avoid it. I believe they used to have old gillnets hanging in the goal for nets," he said in an e-mail. "The new field is pristine. It's like a golf course and you almost don't want to put a cleat to the pitch. It is undoubtedly, by far and away, the best pitch on the Coast."
