Village trustees continue to pitch ideas on how to keep balls in the ballpark
By Anne Trautner
Assistant Editor
Walworth village trustees are still swinging at ideas to keep foul balls inside the baseball field at Devils Lane Park, but none of the solutions appear to be inexpensive.
Trustees would like to raise the net that keeps foul balls in the park about 10 to 15 feet, but three electrical wires that stretch from home plate to first and third bases are in the way.
The most cost effective remedy now appears to be to have the village’s public works employees dig a trench and bury the three wires that pose an electrical hazard. That process would cost about $9,000, Village Trustee LeRoy Nordmeyer said at Monday night’s village board meeting.
“The problem again, obviously, is that there isn’t $9,000 budgeted anywhere to take care of this problem,” Nordmeyer said.
Last month, trustees thought they had come up the perfect solution by relocating the main light switches from the pole behind home plate to one in the outfield. That would eliminate the need for the three wires altogether. However, moving the switches would cost about $30,000, Nordmeyer said Monday.
“In order to [move the switches], we would have to replace or upgrade basically the entire electrical system out there because it is so old and outdated,” Nordmeyer said.
Trustees have gone to bat for Grace Churchill, who lives on Fifth Avenue across the street from home plate. Churchill went to the board for help after balls kept flying into her yard. Churchill, who went to the village board last year as well, said six to eight balls hit her house during one game last year, and she is afraid someone will get hurt.
Village trustees believe that raising the net 10 to 15 feet should keep the majority of foul balls out of Churchill’s and her neighbors’ yards.
“As I told Grace [Churchill], there is no 100 percent solution short of doming the park. [By raising the net], you’re going to eliminate a good portion of it,” Nordmeyer said.
Churchill brought up other concerns as well, such as who is responsible for damages incurred by stray balls.
The village has a reciprocal lease agreement with Big Foot High School which lays out directives for maintaining and using the baseball field as well as for retaining insurance coverage. However, the contract dates back to 1986, and needs to be updated.
Big Foot District Administrator Dorothy Kaufmann contacted Village President David Rasmussen in an effort to plan a meeting to update the contract.
Rasmussen said Monday night that he would call Kaufmann to schedule a meeting for representatives from the school, village, public works department and village recreational program. The village board hopes the meeting will result in an updated contract as well as a financial agreement to fund burying the electrical wires.
