Marysville Police expand C.O.P.P.S. program
all while remodeling a Little League park
By: Lieutenant Chris S. Sachs, Marysville Police Department
It all started with a determination
to complete a community project,
turned into a vision, and with hard
work and hundreds of hours of dedication, the Earle Yorton Little League
Park and the adjacent T-ball field, The
Field of Dreams were remodeled.
Marysville Police Operations
Lt. Christian Sachs has worked for
the City of Marysville for the past 15
years and wanted to give back to the
community and complete a project for
the youth in the community to enjoy.
Sachs met with Chief Easton in late
January 2016 and pitched his vision
of volunteering to remodel the Little
League Park. Sachs had a list of tasks
that needed to be completed which
consisted of; new grass, new in-field
dirt, new sprinklers, paint, lighting,
bleacher repair, the list went on and on
from there. After meeting with Chief
Easton, Sachs and Easton decided to
adopt the Little League Park into the
Marysville Police Departments Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving Program ( C.O.P.P.S)..
Opening night was scheduled
for March 18, 2016 and this remodel
needed to be completed by then. As
you can imagine, a remodel this large
was no small task, and with a short
turnaround no less. But, Sachs diligently met with several businesses,
service organizations, and volunteer
groups and got an immediate positive
response. Sponsors were excited about
the opportunity to be a part of such a
great project and the volunteers starting pouring in.
During the six-week period from
vision to opening night, Sachs and his
family spent over 150 hours volunteering their time at the park, this did not
include the several hundred additional
hours that other volunteers had spent.
Sachs was able to raise over $70,000 in
donations that ranged from funding,
materials, and labor to complete the
remodel.
As a result of the dedication,
vision, and desire we were able to lay
over 24,000 square feet of new sod,
new crushed red rock cinder for the
in-field, new sprinkler system, replace
all the wood in the bleachers/ stadi-
um, new lighting, the entire facility
painted, dug outs re-roofed, covers
placed on batting cages, bull pen
work, PA System, and fencing slats in
the surrounding fences.
The work didn’t stop there.
The Field of Dreams is a T-ball park
behind the Earle Yorton Little League
field that is too often forgotten. Sachs
helped to obtain donations and organized the work for that field as well.
The work consisted of constructing a
new backstop, laying concrete in the
dug-outs, placing covers on the dugouts, fencing slats, and applying new
cinder to the in-field baselines.
When opening night came on
March 18, 2016, hundreds of kids
stormed the field in their uniforms.
Some were seeing it for the first time
and others seeing the progress as we
completed it. The satisfaction that it
brought the faces of our youth, the
community partnering with the police
department, and a place they can take
pride in, is priceless. ■
SPRING 2016 | California Police Chief
35