Council weighs ball field expansion, animal shelter upgrades

May 15—The Meridian City Council is considering projects to expand the city's available baseball facilities at Magnolia Middle School and begin some much-needed renovations at Meridian Animal Shelter after diving deeper into the proposals in a work session Tuesday.

Councilman Dwayne Davis said there is currently one baseball field at Magnolia Middle School that sees heavy use. The number of teams needing to use the field makes it difficult for everyone to play and still get home at a reasonable hour, he said.

To solve the issue, Davis said he had asked Liz Dudley, a landscape engineer with Engineering Plus, to explore adding a second field at the site.

Dudley said the current field is built to standards set by Little League, which recommends 200 feet from the back of home plate to the outfield fence. The same dimensions are also used for girls' softball.

Adding another field of that size in the northwest corner of the property is possible, Dudley said, but it would be a tight fit. The field would run right up to 24th Street and bump right up against existing lighting for the football field, she said.

Magnolia currently has a good quality lighting system, and adding another field may create a need to add more lighting or reconfigure how the lights are arranged, Dudley said. While lights aren't a priority in the summer when games are completed before sunset, fall activities will often continue until after dark. The lack of lighting or poorly configured lighting is a potential safety concern down the line, she said.

Parks and Recreation Director Thomas Adams said he agrees with Davis that the need for an additional field is there, but it doesn't necessarily need to be as large as the existing field. Several of the city's existing fields are below the recommended 200-foot size with no negative effect on play, he said. The two bottom fields at Phil Hardin Park, for example, are 185 feet.

Clay Sims, director of operations for Meridian Public School District, said the council also needs to keep in mind Magnolia students currently use the proposed site for a practice football field. Preserving the school's ability to use the field for football practice will need to be incorporated into the design.

Animal Control

Magnolia's baseball field isn't the only facility in need of attention, and council members also heard from Meridian Animal Control Supervisor Brian McCary about needed renovations to the city's aging animal shelter.

The current animal shelter, he said, was built in 1978, and apart from a new door in 2012 and a new air conditioner earlier this year, it has not been updated since. Years of patching and repairs have helped string the building along, he said, but it is at the end of its useful life and is not the facility needed as the main point of interaction between animal control and the public.

"After looking at that whole building, the tin on the outside is starting to rust and fade away, the bolts on the roof are rusting, the ceiling's leaking," he said.

McCary said he has spoken with several contractors about the building and gathered the cost of needed repairs are likely to run near what it would cost to build a new facility.

One thing in animal control's favor, McCary said is the second building on the site, which is used to house stray animals, is much newer and in much better condition. The city also owns a good amount of the surrounding land giving it plenty of room to expand, he said.

Animal control, which falls under Meridian Police Department, does not have anywhere near the $100,000 to $200,000 needed to make the necessary improvements, McCary said, and the shelter will need the council's involvement if the project is going to move forward.

Councilman George Thomas said his first suggestion is East Central Planning and Development District, which assists the city in identifying grant opportunities and drawing up the necessary grant applications. As the supervisor, he said, McCary should be the one to call ECPDD.

Thomas said the council can look to find the funding if ECPDD doesn't have any ideas, but it may take time to get the project done.

"I don't know if we're going to do it right now, but I'm glad you're looking at the future and not just patching what we've got," he said.

Contact Thomas Howard at thoward@themeridianstar.com