Artificial Turf

Two camphor trees adjacent to the newly reconstructed Memorial Field that were slated for removal have gotten a reprieve. The City Council this week postponed signing off on an agreement with the school district for their removal, meaning the trees will likely stay for the next year, city parks officials said. Earlier this year, Burbank Unified School District officials warned that berries from the trees would stain the stadium's artificial-turf surface and the track. Though the stains would not harm the structure, the discoloration would not be covered by any warranty, and district officials said there is little money to spend on extra maintenance.

W ater restrictions and an increased emphasis on conservation is changing the way planners conceive home gardens, commercial landscapes and parks. Rick Mayer, a Glendale-based landscape architect who helped plan MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and the Buena Vista Library in Burbank, sat down with us to discuss the future of outdoor spaces in Southern California. Severe water shortages have prompted the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies most of the water to Glendale and Burbank, to cut its distribution by 10% and aise rates by 17.4%.

The artificial turf is in, the goal posts are up and the new football field at Burbank High School is ready to host its first contests. The new sports facility is definitely something to behold. The facility is all set for the Bulldogs varsity football team to take the field and go up against formidable foes while playing in front of throngs of loyal fans at the school’s home venue. But that will probably never happen. Even with its new home field in place, Burbank will still play its varsity home games at Burroughs’ Memorial Field.

High gas prices are no shocker The cost of gas may be high, but it’s not surprising. Not to anyone who has paid attention the last few decades, anyway. In 1978, the average cost of a gallon of gas was 83 cents. A stamp was 13 cents, a dozen eggs was 82 cents and milk was $1.70. Today, the national average for a gallon of gas is $4.07. A stamp is 42 cents, a dozen eggs is creeping toward $3 and a gallon of milk is about $3.60. Cost on everything has more or less tripled in the last 30 years.

Bits and pieces from the local sports scene.   Rains wash out area soccer games : The wrath of rainstorms that have pelted the area the past week caused many postponements for the city’s boys’ and girls’ soccer teams. Even matches on the artificial turf at Burbank High couldn’t be played. Administrators at Burbank and Burroughs tried to push for their regularly scheduled cross-town rivalry contests Wednesday to be played. Early in the morning, the schools agreed to move the girls’ match from Memorial Field to Burbank.

Cities throughout the Southland this week reported that their residents had either met or exceeded water saving goals so far this summer, political victory amid all those annoying conservation commercials. Perhaps there’s nothing like multiple dry brush fires and blackened skies to hammer those drought warnings home, or maybe residents are starting to finally come around to the idea that lush is no longer sustainable. Either way, news this week that residents in Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta had reduced their water consumption by up to 22% was heartening, especially given the previous hard sell with the voluntary conservation messages.

CITY HALL — Burbank Unified School District board members decided Thursday to spend a bit more money on Burbank High School’s field projects. Officials voted unanimously to install a drainage pipe for water runoff under the school’s small practice field next to the football field scheduled to start renovation in March. At an estimated extra cost of $19,400, the decision would also place an underground leaching field for water runoff to collect and disperse into the soil underneath the baseball field nearby, unless it is deemed unfeasible by architects and engineers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a no-show at a Bob Hope Airport political event Thursday, but the “No on Proposition 23” show went on without him. The event was called to criticize Proposition 23, one of nine statewide measures on the Nov. 2 ballot. It would suspend a landmark California law that sets sustainability benchmarks until one year after the unemployment rate returns to pre-recession averages of 5.5% or less. The unemployment rate in California was 12.4% in August.