Donations would improve ballfield lighting at Charles City Lions Field diamonds

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Youth baseball may look a little different this summer, both in the nature of some of the teams and when games are played.

Jay Jung and Josh Johnson were at the Charles City Parks and Recreation Board meeting Wednesday evening, seeking permission to use donated funds to replace lights and light bulbs at the two Lions Field ball diamonds, and possibly to make updates at the Sportsmen’s Park baseball diamond.

Johnson explained that for fifth, sixth and seventh graders they are forming traveling teams for each grade level, because they didn’t have enough players sign up to create enough Charles City-only teams to play each other competitively.

“We have three teams that will be playing. I think each team has six or seven home night dates, beginning in mid-May, through the end of June, where other towns will be coming to play against our kids. So we’ve got a pretty full schedule of double-headers starting at 5:30 or 6 o’clock,” Johnson said. “The need for the lights has intensified quite a bit to host the other towns.”

He said all the light poles are in place for the east diamond and the west diamond at Lions Field, but the light fixtures on the outfield poles in the east diamond are too small, and many of the bulbs on both fields are not working.

They got an estimate from Sullivan Electric that it would cost about $16,000 to replace the fixtures on four poles with larger lights, Johnson said, and then Jung worked to come up with $20,000 in donations.

Jung said he talked with Mike Molstead, who agreed to donate $10,000 from Mike Molstead Motors. Farm Bureau Financial Services, for whom Jung is an agent, also agreed to donate $10,000.

Jung said all they needed from the Parks & Rec Board and the city, which owns the fields and the lights, was permission to proceed, a commitment to maintain the lights, and a sign on either the outfield fence or the backstop fence acknowledging the gift.

The Parks & Rec Board voted unanimously to approve the request.

Tyler Mitchell, director of the Charles City Parks and Recreation Department, said it is the city’s responsibility to maintain the lights already, and if they know they are being used more often they will be more diligent about replacing bulbs when needed.

Jung said the idea of going to traveling teams was met with approval from the parents who had signed up their kids for fifth, sixth and seventh grade baseball this summer, and they would make sure that rides were available for players whose parents were unable to provide them to away games.

He said it may also increase the number of boys who go out for school baseball teams in the higher grades, because some kids who have never played on traveling teams may not feel ready to play junior varsity or varsity high school baseball.

“There’s a lot of positives to this whole thing going this route, I think, because, for one, our fifth-graders and on up are now Comets. They’re not playing against each other,” he said. “They’re Comets.’”

Jung said they are also thinking of expanding a regional baseball tournament that they hold each year around the 4th of July, which would also require the availability of playing more night games.

He said last year the tournament brought an estimated 450 people into town, and they’ve had requests to allow more teams to participate. If it expands to a multiple-day tournament, that means a lot of the players and families on the visiting teams would be spending a night or two in Charles City.

Not only would they be staying in local hotels and motels, buying gas and meals, but they would be around to participate in the city’s July 4th celebration activities as well, Jung said.

Johnson said the Youth Baseball Board has also talked about what could be done at the former high school baseball diamond at Sportsmen’s Park, to increase the number of diamonds available for youth baseball and tournaments.

“If we can put base plugs at 70 or 75 feet at Sportmen’s and shave off a little of the grass infield so that the base paths don’t run through the grass, we can make that into a functional baseball field with a portable mound pretty quickly,” he said.

“We would be willing to do the work, but we wanted to bring that up, too, as something that if we want to grow baseball fifth through seventh grade to have this program,” Johnson said.

Also at the Parks & Rec Board meeting Wednesday, the board:

• Heard from Mitchell that the board’s swimming pool consultant was not yet ready with cost estimates for various upgrades and added features at the Lions Field swimming pool that would be part of a renovation project on the 32-year-old facility. He said he may schedule a meeting before the next regular monthly meeting in May when those figures become available.

• Began discussing but came to no conclusions on priorities for a five-year plan for the Parks and Rec Board. Among items mentioned were bicycle/walking trail maintenance, a new skate park and the pool study. The board receives approximately $50,000 a year from the city’s hotel/motel tax collections that it can spend on it’s own projects and priorities.