Coach Micah Anderson, along with Ryan Rai, Rocky Wise, Ken Coulombe, and Dennise Eddy, approached mayor and council at the Oct. 2, Sports, Recreation and Culture Committee meeting, requesting $10,200 to be put towards the materials needed to build a batting cage at the ball park on South Shore Road.
Anderson presented the plans for the cage, drawn up by Ken Coulombe, and explained that 110-150 kids are involved in baseball each year.
“It seems to be growing each year,” said Anderson. “It’s great for the kids and good for the town, it brings people here.”
He then explained that the association is asking for funds, but they have already raised the $4,500 needed for a pitching machine (that they have since purchased), and they have gathered the necessary volunteer support and resources to make sure the project is completed at minimal cost.
“We have the machine, we have people interested in helping, we have fundraised to pay the labour costs. We have seven or eight good people that are actual contractors . . . we’d all be willing to build this,” said Anderson.
He explained that the reasons for the batting cage are that it would free up the field for practice, batting practice could be conducted in the rain and all year round, and it could be used for field level storage for the teams.
“What I’ve noticed in the past is that’s what our association lacks, is hitting. With a lot of other associations that have batting cages, their kids hit,” said Anderson. “This is what we need to stay with the other associations. We did have a great year last year; one of our Peewee teams did win the league, so we’re in the right direction.”
“We can’t find $10,000 in September, but we will certainly bring it forward for consideration in the budget for next year,” said Coun. Tim McGonigle. “That’s the earliest that I could see anything transpiring. There is no contingency fund, per se, in the batting cage fund that was established.”
Council did decide to move the item to Finance and Administration and see if there is an allotment of funds that could be used for the batting cage, but they weren’t making any promises.
“When the president came and spoke to us about the batting cage originally there was no ask[ing] at the time for us to budget for this batting cage for this year, so it’s definitely not in the budget for this year,” said Mayor Ross Forrest.
The item was moved to the next Finance and Administration Committee meeting, to take place on Oct. 16
