By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Gardendale is dreaming big for the expansion of the Kenneth A. Clemons Sports Complex.

On Wednesday, several guests were invited to the Gardendale Parks and Recreation board meeting, held under a pavilion next to the city’s new Splash Pad.

The Gardendale City Council attended, as well as John S. Godwin with the architect firm Godwin-Barnett, and Matt Hawes with CDG Engineers and Associates.

The purpose of the meeting, according to Parks and Recreation superintendent Stan Hogeland, was to inform the city council of the land use plan for the park and to get the council’s input on it.

“We want to give them the opportunity to make any changes (in the preliminary master plan),” Hogeland said. “Then when the funding becomes available, we’ll have a plan in place.”

The site consists of 57 acres, about 10 of which are already used for soccer fields, a parking lot, and the Splash Pad and nearby playground.

Possible future amenities at the complex include baseball fields, a pedestrian trail, mountain bike trail, RV park, additional soccer fields and more parking lots.

The site has received more than 700 loads of free dirt from construction at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham. Hogeland estimated the value of the dirt at almost $200,000.

However, Godwin warned that the city needs to make a decision about how to develop the park because if the free dirt has to be moved to another spot, it will then become very expensive dirt because of the cost of moving it and leveling it again.

“The conversations you’re having right now are going to influence the complex,” Godwin told the council members. “You’re at the point now you can put your influence in it.”

He added that the most important thing the council can do right now is purchase additional property.

The site is hemmed in to the north, east and west by Jew Hollow Road and Fieldstown Road, and to the south by houses and other property lines.

There is also a large spot on the west end of the site not owned by the city, and a small area on the east end owned by the Fultondale Gas Department.

What the complex will actually look like upon completion is still in the air.

“The number of the fields is in question, and the size of the fields is in question,” Hogeland told the council members.

He added that the city does not have baseball fields large enough for children over the age of 10, according to recommended distances set by Dizzy Dean.

He said 11- and 12-year-olds are playing baseball on fields too small for them.

About 20 years ago, the city had Driver Field at Moncrief Park, which had a 300-foot fence. But Hogeland said the field was cut down into four smaller fields for Little League use.

Hogeland said a new baseball complex with a centralized pressbox could bring tournaments to the city, and with it revenue from visitors’ use of hotels and restaurants.

“You’ve got an economic drive here,” Godwin agreed.

As for the soccer field, Hogeland said the Gardendale Youth Soccer Association wants to donate $10,000 for additional soccer fields at the complex. Grading for the fields began Thursday, Hogeland said.