Plans are moving quickly with the Ackerman Recreation Complex, a proposed complex of multiuse sports fields that would be built behind Lee Elementary and the Ackerman Center through a collaboration between the city of Canby and Canby School District.
A 13-member task force has been appointed, comprised of what Mayor Brian Hodson described as a “good cross-section of the community,” and three initial design concepts are planned to be presented to the task force on March 18. Of course, that’s just the beginning.
From there, Mayor Hodson, City Administrator Rick Robinson and City Attorney Joe Lindsay will meet with school district officials to discuss the intergovernmental agreement that would be needed to make the proposed complex a reality. The next step would be to present the project and the framework for the IGA to the City Council at a later meeting, probably in April.
The complex would be built on approximately 25 acres of land owned by the Canby School District. The mostly empty field is sandwiched between Lee Elementary on one side, and on the other, Legacy Park, which is owned by the city of Canby.
Residential neighborhoods and Ackerman form the site’s northern and southern borders.
Though much is up in the air right now, discussions have included the possibility of lighted softball, baseball, soccer and football fields, and tennis, basketball and even pickleball courts.
The biggest remaining unknown, of course, is what the heck “pickleball” is. I guess we’ll just have to wait until next week to find out.