Craig Daily Press / Two soccer fields planned for Loudy-Simpson

Archive for Wednesday, June 25, 2008

June 25, 2008

At its Tuesday meeting, the Moffat County Commission:

• Decided to rebid a purchase for a self-priming pump for the Road and Bridge Department. The original bid request included specifications for an 80-horsepower motor, but submissions were more than the county budgeted. The new bid request will include specifications for a lower horsepower motor.

• Approved a resolution to post a 35 mph speed limit on Ninth Street heading west from Moffat County High School toward the Shadow Mountain subdivision.

• Approved June supplemental budget requests, the majority of which were funds rolled over from 2007 to be spent in 2008 and did affect the county's Contingency Fund. There were also two unplanned expenditures the Commission approved Contingency funds for. The Sherman Youth Camp was given $3,449 for generator repairs and the Independent Life Center was given $4,000 for temporary funding to its Section 8 housing voucher program.

• Adopted 2006 building codes, including the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code, a building code for energy efficiency standards. Colorado Revised Statutes requires all counties with building codes adopt the new codes by July 1.

• Approved a plan to install a FedEx drop box in front of the Moffat County Courthouse beside the current U.S. Post Office box. FedEx will cover all costs.

• Approved a contract for the county to use Government Technology System's E-Foreclosure software, which lets mortgage holders file foreclosures electronically.

Craig — Soccer once gave a teenaged Saed Tayyara a reason to feel good about himself.

Tayyara, then a boy growing up in Syria who would go on to become one of the youngest members of the Syrian national soccer team in history, now hopes to bring that opportunity to Moffat County's youth.

Through his efforts as Moffat County commissioner, Great Outdoors Colorado approved $200,000 to build two additional soccer fields, bathrooms and a parking lot at Loudy-Simpson Park.

GOCO receives about $53 million annually from the state lottery to spend on projects that enhance Colorado's parks and recreation options.

Moffat County will contribute $66,512 and Trapper Mining Co. $42,720 in services.

Officials said the county needs to coordinate with GOCO and Trapper Mine to see when construction could start, but this year is not out of the question.

After two years of trying to get the project running, Tayyara looked back on the work involved.

"It really was a mission," he said. "And it couldn't have been done without the people at GOCO, Aimee Wesley and Wayne Piccone, and the help from the city, civic organizations, the schools, the college and the public. All of them supported it and signed petitions or letters. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened."

Chris Leding, GOCO communications director, said diverse public support and different possible uses for the fields drew her organization to the project.

"It scored very high with our reviewers," Leding said. "It was our number three scored project for the whole state."

Soccer's beauty, Tayyara said, is it's not a divisive sport. You don't have to be tall, like basketball, or big, like football.

"It provides for all different kinds of folks," he said. "They could be tall; they could be short; they could be skinny or medium-sized or big-sized. You can play all 11 positions if you're good at it, if you work at it and really want to excel.

"That's the beauty of the sport."

He hopes local youths will use the sport or the fields to get active, outside and exercise.

"I don't want those kids to be trapped by bad influences," Tayyara said. "Maybe this can get them away from doing nothing and then starting smoking or drinking or whatever. To me, soccer gears you to get away from the pressure of studying and at the same time gives you energy to go back to studying."