Another Little League site may get its turn at bat for upgrades, improvements

County officials met at the West Macon Little League park on Friday to explore ways of renovating the site.

The park was built and chartered in 1983, but it has deteriorated over the years from a lack of attention, they said.

“The parks just weren’t maintained,” park President Sherman Green said.

Commissioner Joe Allen said Little League representatives have talked to him about issues there. Allen was on the original board when the West Macon Little League park was built, and he echoed the sentiments that the county hasn’t taken care of the park like it should have.

Upgrades will take money, and officials will have to set priorities for the Mercer University Drive park.

Julie Moore, Macon-Bibb’s co-interim county manager, was among those on hand, along with Commissioner Elaine Lucas and Clay Murphey, who oversees the county’s sales tax projects.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can approach first with the money we have available,” she said. “It looks to be some cleaning up of the field, addressing the fences that are old and worn out, and making sure that all of the light fixtures are working.”

Moore said they’ll likely pull money from blight bond funds and special purpose sales tax proceeds.

“We’re probably looking at a $500,000 to $600,000 investment,” she said.

Other issues at the park could be addressed during a second phase of renovations.

“The first critical need is to address the aesthetics of the field and the safety for phase one,” she said. “Some additional fields or additional recreation, such as tennis courts, may come in a couple of years.”

She added, “We’ll go back and look at the numbers and figure out where we can get the funding once we have an idea of how much it might cost. Then we would take that to the commission for approval.”

Allen said he’s also interested in using land near the animal shelter for walking trails. The money would come from the 2012 sales tax proceeds.

Millions of dollars have been poured into different areas of the county in recent years to boost recreation. Now it may be west Bibb County’s turn.

Commissioners and Vine-Ingle Little League broke ground at Freedom Park for improvements in June. The $2.6 million project will include a splash pad for players to cool off after games.

Construction is winding down on the $7.6 million South Macon-Bibb County Recreation Center.

“How the park looks makes a difference to a lot of people,” Green said. “We’re just trying to get our park caught up with everyone else’s.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Another Little League site may get its turn at bat for upgrades, improvements."