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ARTICLE
FOOTBALL FIELD OF THE YEAR
Football Field of the Year
City of DeSoto Parks & Recreation Meadowcreek Park Football Complex - Championship Field 1 By: Phil Lozano, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation, City of DeSoto • Editor: Katie Flowers
Meadowcreek Park is a City of DeSoto Regional Athletic Complex designated for youth football. The park was built in 2003 and consists of one premier football field (Championship Field 1) with a press box, two additional football game fields, and one practice field. The premier field is used for city youth football, events, DeSoto ISD Jr. High football, and tournaments. The City of DeSoto is located in the southern part of Dallas County just south of Dallas on Interstate 35. The park is located in the southeastern part of the city on Uhl Rd. Our maintenance program the past several months has been unique in that we transitioned from remediation of the entire park as a result of a tornado to preparation and maintenance for fall football.
Aftermath Debris Safety of the patrons was our highest priority and our second priority was to ease the financial burden on the city. Staff immediately starting working with FEMA, the State of Texas, and consultants to assess the damage and to understand the federal and state guidelines for remediation and reimbursement. After understanding the guidelines, staff worked closely with the consultant to develop a remediation plan for the site. Everything vertical such as buildings, goal posts, scoreboards, stadium lighting, and other amenities were easy to identify and repair. What was challenging and most difficult was the remediation of the athletic fields and passive areas. Staff worked closely with the consultant to build a debris removal and remediation process for the fields and passive areas. Meadowcreek Championship Field 1 Tornado Aftermath THE TORNADO AND ITS DESTRUCTION On December 26, 2015, the park was hit by an F4 Tornado and was completely devastated. The damaged encompassed the entire 102acre park, including buildings, stadium lighting, bleachers, fencing, goal posts, scoreboards, athletic fields, and passive areas. The Park Maintenance staff began removing large debris the following day, and through this process, staff noticed smaller debris embedded into the ground. The embedded materials posed a significant safety hazard including glass shards, sharp pieces of metal, nails, screws, and other unidentified materials that could pose injuries to the park patrons.
ATHLETIC FIELD AND PASSIVE AREA REMEDIATION PROCESS The consultant’s damage assessment recommended the following processes into three phases for removing embedded debris and field remediation Phase I – Our staff would begin mowing, vacuuming grass clippings and small debris, and removing other metallic debris with a magnetic device. Phase II – We would then begin remediating planter beds, verticutting lawns and fields, vacuuming exposed debris, re-mowing lawns and ››› 20