WESTOVER, MD - The Somerset County Office of Recreation, Parks and Tourism wants to use state funds to expand the Centralized Athletic Complex.
The existing facility at 30290 Sam Barnes Rd in Westover was completed in 2010, primarily using funds from Maryland's Program Open Space.
Clint Sterling is the Director of Somerset County Recreation, Parks and Tourism. After receiving $1 million of grant funds from the state's Community Parks and Playgrounds Program, Sterling said his team saw an opportunity to build on the last 15 years of maintaining the site for county residents and visitors.
"We're going to expand these existing fields to create more multi-use fields that can be used for soccer, field hockey, and football," Sterling said. "We'll have some courts here, like pickball is very popular ... basketball."
Other expansion goals include new bathrooms, another parking lot and walking paths. Carla Makinen lives in Pocomoke City but drives her sons to the soccer fields in Westover weekly.
"We are here today because my sons say that this field is better than the one that's closer to where we live," Makinen said. "They live to come out and they're out here today just shooting on the soccer goals and getting some extra practice in."
She said that the addition of more walking paths and bathrooms excites her the most in the proposed expansion.
"When my husband and I aren't watching, we use the walking track a lot," Makinen said. Right now, with two, I guess, permanent restrooms and then a porta-structure, it's very limited."
The Recreation, Parks and Tourism Office must finalize its design plan before submitting a request for proposal and bringing the project to bid.
"We feel also that recreation is an essential service too, because in a time where you know there are more things out there for young people to get involved in that aren't necessarily in fresh air and moving, you know, we want people out moving," Sterling said.
No definitive timeline for the expansion is available yet but Sterling said they are hopeful that some work on the undeveloped area of the complex could begin in 2026.