Project Manager Theresa Armstrong was in attendance during the fiscal court meeting on August 18 to ask for the county's assistance in doing $500,000 of in-kind dozer work for the construction.
Deuce's Field of Dreams, a proposed $2 million will include four to eight ball fields, 100 parking spots, a concession stand and sidewalks. Current plans are to build on property located off of Highway 54 beside the Grayson County skatepark.
Armstrong presented fiscal court members with the engineer's plans for the layout of the facility.
Officials approved the motion to look into the situation further, before making a final decision on the matter.
The reason for the decision was because the county had initially looked at constructing the detention center on the same piece of property, but it was too expensive of an investment.
Grayson County Judge-Executive Gary Logsdon explained the reason for not building at that location.
"We looked at building the detention center there," he said, "but hit rock, with not even a foot hardly. Engineers hit solid limestone. Moving that much dirt, you may not know how much you might get into. We core drilled the area four times, and hit limestone within less than foot every time. The dirt is not a problem. The limestone is an issue. We were told that we have to cushion everything in that location (when they looked at building the detention center), and there was no way we could afford to construct a building there."
Leitchfield Mayor William Thomason said if the property was not feasible for construction of the ball field, the city had other pieces of land that would be suitable. His plans are to dedicate 20-25 acres for the new complex.
Armstrong, who has been working on the project for some time, has already received donations from local organizations to go towards the ball field fund.
She had previously met with Twin Lakes CEO Stephen Meredith about getting a list of donors for the Healthplex, and contacting them to see if they would transfer the money to the complex project.
Meredith gave her a list of donors, and two weeks ago, over 120 letters were sent out, asking for donations.
Trim Masters Charitable Foundation has already committed $15,000 to this cause. Armstrong has also asked the Leitchfield Lions Club and Leitchfield Rotary to support her vision.
"I am asking the fiscal court to support this project," urged Armstrong. " In order for this to be successful I need the county's support also. I started this project to get a baseball complex built in the county for our kids. I want them to get the same opportunity that my son was given through the years playing baseball growing up."
The current goal is to have everything together by October or November of 2009. This will give Armstrong enough time to prepare her application for a 50/50 Land Conservation Grant. The funds will be available for applying for by January 2010.
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