Debris playing havoc with youth baseball in Washington Park
Earth-moving equipment has been working beside the Mustang field in Washington Park.
Rocks, rebar and debris on the Mustang field parking lot at Washington Park
Rocks, rebar and debris on the Mustang field parking lot at Washington Park
Weather isn’t the only intrusion on the start of youth baseball in Washington.
Chunks of concrete, some with reinforcing steel protruding from them, sat on mounds of mud Monday morning near the two Mustang playing fields in Washington Park. Games are scheduled to begin this week for the Mustang League (ages 9 and 10), but not only was the debris reducing parking space in an area where two games are usually played simultaneously, it had raised safety concerns.
“The concrete and rebar could seriously injure a child,” Rick Herrnberger, president of Washington Youth Baseball, said Monday. “We worry about someone falling and being impaled by the rebar.”
Mayor Scott Putnam said a snow fence was put up over the weekend to help secure the area. But by mid-Monday afternoon, a solution was underway.
Herrnberger said BCI, the contractor that deposited the concrete near the fields in the northeastern end of the park, was planning to use a bulldozer it had on-site to send the debris into the valley below.
“I can’t think it will take more than a day or a day and a half to remove everything,” said Councilman Ken Westcott, who is in charge of the city’s public works department.
Westcott said the concrete is from the second part of the third phase of the South Main Street project.
But like baseball itself, construction is affected by weather. And the past few days have been wet – sopping wet during brief stretches.
“We were hoping this would be done by Friday, but you can’t tell with weather. We’re dealing with a higher authority there,” Herrnberger said.
The bulldozer is slightly uphill from the debris, on a reasonably flat stretch. Herrnberger, head of the nonprofit WYB, said a third Shetland League field – for 4- to 6-year-old players – is planned for that location.
Washington Youth Baseball has seven leagues, and leases fields in the park for an annual fee that Herrnberger declined to provide. WYB is responsible for “all capital improvements inside the fences” of the fields, the president said.
There are concerns outside the fences, like the debris piles and the pushing of road millings into the mud by construction vehicles transporting heavy materials, making vehicular navigation a little challenging.
He said the parking situation at the Mustang fields, as of Monday afternoon, was not sufficient.
“We bring in teams from other communities, which supports our community – the restaurants, the outlets, the shopping areas. Everybody benefits when we hold tournaments. It’s a little tough to do that when we don’t have parking.”
Herrnberger, however, was adamant that he is “not blaming the city.”
“They’ve been understanding. Everybody has been helpful. We’ve worked well together. They take my calls, and they are as concerned as I am.”