Archives



Dream of fields; is Arnold Field safe?; London at rest

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Sonoma Valley Sun

Meanwhile the School District is kicking around plans for improvements to Sonoma Valley High School’s athletic facilities, including an artificial turf field, an all-weather track, and new baseball fields and basketball courts. Price? Ballpark figure: $6 million, not including lights, bleachers or spectator-related facilities. Coaches claim the current soccer fields are an unsafe embarrassment, and advocates say that improvements are long overdue. The argument against, as usual, focuses on the budget. In a zero-sum game, money in the field means less for inside the classroom. As Tracy Kirkorian put it, “Is soccer more important than science?” Then again, who wants to argue with a former NFL lineman? As an alum and “parent of future Dragon,” Tony Moll told the board he’s all for the improvements…

…Not part of the discussion, oddly, is the state of Arnold Field – not just that, for football, it’s a dilapidated mess, but that the field itself is out of compliance with state law. As John Kelly explains (in his blog at law-kelly.com), a football field must be 360 feet long, surrounded by a further safety buffer of 15 feet. But the length from fence-to-fence at Arnold Field is about 10 feet short of the required space. The cramped quarters leave no space for accessible routes alongside the playing surface, a DSA requirement for California school facilities. It would be very pricey to bring the field up to code, Kelly says, so make it a baseball-only facility. “Arnold Field is a historical facility, steeped in the memories made there,” he says. “But physically, it is a product of another time.”

Was there any life lived as fully as that of Jack London? A globe-trotting adventurer, one of the first authors known around the world, war reporter, socialist provocateur and an innovative, even by today’s standards, farmer, London was all of 40 when he died of kidney failure on November 21, 1916. His gravesite, at Jack London Park, is now the essence of nature at rest. The yearly memorial will be held there on Saturday, November 21. Meet at the House of Happy Walls Museum to start the half mile walk to the gravesite at 10:30 a.m. It’s free, except for parking, and rain will not cancel. Rain? London would have welcomed it.

— Val Robichaud



One thought on “Dream of fields; is Arnold Field safe?; London at rest

  1. I personally would wait a little before replacing that grass and mud with synthetic lawn. There is mounting evidence that these plastic grasses, often made with recycled tires, may cause cancer. The small black particles are kicked up, loosened and often ingested and/or come into contact with skin abrasions. Looks like we might be getting enough rain to water anyway!

Comments are closed.


Sonoma Sun | Sonoma, CA