Artificial Turf

After the city’s summer concert season at the Starlight Bowl comes to a close in mid-August, another show will go on. The last show of the summer at the Starlight Bowl is a community-organized benefit concert on Aug. 24 to raise money for a new scoreboard at John Burroughs High School’s Memorial Field. The city’s three Kiwanis clubs have banded together in a quest to raise about $50,000 needed for a new scoreboard. Club members hope to bring in a bulk of those funds through the end-of-summer show.

After the city’s summer concert season at the Starlight Bowl comes to a close in mid-August, another show will go on. The last show of the summer at the Starlight is a community-organized benefit concert on Aug. 24 to raise money for a new scoreboard at John Burroughs High School’s Memorial Field. The city’s three Kiwanis clubs have banded together in a quest to raise about $50,000 needed for a new scoreboard Club members hope to bring in a bulk of those funds through the end-of-summer show.

CITY HALL — In a council chamber packed with student athletes, parents and community members Tuesday night, the City Council agreed to put $6 million toward improving athletic fields at Burbank and John Burroughs high schools. The council also directed city staff to use part of $5 million that is already set aside to improve city soccer facilities to improve the southern field at Jordan Middle School The recommendations were made during a joint City Council and Burbank Unified School District Board meeting, where district officials asked for the city's financial help to replace aging sports fields.

BURBANK — City officials have selected an architectural firm for an $11.3-million project to improve deteriorated athletic fields at Burbank and John Burroughs high schools, bringing the plan a step closer to breaking ground. The project will replace fields at both high schools with artificial turf and an all-weather track. Renovations at Burroughs will update stadium seating, bringing it into compliance with Americans with Disability Act requirements. After soliciting about 10 contractors and receiving five proposals, officials picked Burbank-based Adolph Ziemba, A.I.A and Associates Inc., a firm with a history of work on school athletic fields, Public Works Director Bonnie Teaford said.

It was an unusual experience attending Friday's annual "Big Game" football contest between cross-town rivals Burroughs High and Burbank. This was the first time the game between the two city teams was played outside of Burbank. Although the venue at Arcadia High is nice enough, it just didn't have the atmosphere of Memorial Field. Because of ongoing renovations to the stadium on the campus at Burroughs High, the Indians and Bulldogs had to find another place in which to stage their annual clash.

BURBANK — They spent countless hours and large portions of their high school years competing and practicing on the football field and running track at Memorial Field. Many players and coaches from Burroughs High and Burbank have fond memories of toiling on the sometimes muddy, often barren and uneven football venue or trying to deal with outdated track and field facilities and an outdated dirt running surface. But that was the old Memorial Field. Some of those same coaches and players got a chance to view the new state-of-the-art Memorial Field that was unveiled Saturday in a dedication ceremony of the facility on the campus of Burroughs High.

Legs churning, 28-year-old Dustin Hucks repeats the motto of his coach: Run strong, run long. Run strong, run long. Next month, the screenwriter from Lubbock, Texas, will take off from Burbank and run home to reunite with his aunt, Debbie Yoakum, who has Stage 4 lymphoma. “Most people his age probably wouldn’t even think about doing this for someone else,” said Yoakum, 53. “I still have a lot of living to do. I am not ready to go anywhere.” On paper — and certainly off — the 30-day journey is physically daunting, made up of 35- to 40-mile days.

Ban should not blanket Burbank In response to the Burbank Leader article on Jan. 31 ("Council likes smoking ban"): The Burbank City Council should not ban smoking in open-air, non-closed areas. We have had enough of the benevolent-order-of-bosombeaters gadflies who feign indignation and offense at each and everything of which they disapprove. Furthermore, I resent officious meddlers from Calabasas, etc., appearing before the Burbank City Council to seek to influence the affairs of Burbank.

An opposing coach from the Pacific League stepped onto the Burbank High soccer field a few weeks ago for a match against the Bulldogs. As the coach looked at the playing surface, he had one question: "Do we really have to play on that?" What caused the coach to pose the question was the dilapidated and dangerous condition of the playing field — if you can call it that. A playing field is suppose to have grass, but what Burbank is forced to compete on is more like a dirt lot. The playing surface is filled with holes and dust is abundant when it's dry, and mud is inches deep when it rains.