LONGVIEW, Texas — The City of Longview approved $7 million to help improve Lear Park, particularly the sports complex.
The money will go towards adding two additional softball and baseball fields as well as improvements to the existing soccer fields. All of the projects are funded by a bond.
"Those bonds were sold last year so the funding is in place for the construction of it," Scott Caron, the director of the Parks and Recreation Department in Longview, said.
According to Caron, the park was originally designed to bring sports tourism into the city. These improvement, which have been in the works for two decades, will help Lear Park reach that goal.
"I think the phased approach that we've taken has allowed us to take measured steps to see what the community wants and needs, but then also allow for us to make changes that are necessary," Caron said.
One of the major changes is the addition of artificial turf to the soccer fields, allowing games to go on during inclement weather.
"The reason for the artificial turf wasn't in the original master plan because that wasn't really something on the municipal side of things at that time," Caron explained. "The things that we've noticed, we had to cancel games because of the rain or the field conditions and those kinds of things, specifically in soccer."
The money will also add light fixtures to the soccer fields to allow games to be played at later times.
Caron said while the park's budget is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, its day-to-day use has not changed.