farmersfight said:

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Bob - take a day and go check out the ranch community park.

https://www.thefranklinranch.com/

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I've seen it. Incredible. Veterans won't be that, but it'll be in the ballpark, pun intended, when we're done. Franklin was funded by the energy sector as I recall.

Thanks!

Bob Y

Glol at "high" and "shortage."

I love that y'all are bent on spending $15 million and nobody even bothered to break out a calculator.

Edit: Called the CMO to confirm. I'll let y'all know what I learn. But I know that in 2022, they didn't bother. I suspect the same level of care was taken this time. lol

Edit 2: I will do another try with parks and econ dev. But it looks like, yeah, nobody bothered to pull out the calculator this time around either.

Brian Alg said:

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Glol at "high" and "shortage."

I love that y'all are bent on spending $15 million and nobody even bothered to break out a calculator.

Edit: Called the CMO to confirm. I'll let y'all know what I learn. But I know that in 2022, they didn't bother. I suspect the same level of care was taken this time. lol

Edit 2: I will do another try with parks and econ dev. But it looks like, yeah, nobody bothered to pull out the calculator this time around either.

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I can tell you that the 12 organization currently has 15 teams trying to get in 3 practices a week on the 2 Bee Creek fields (both Softball fields and have limited availability) and the Bombers field. On a day like yesterday and today, we have the Bombers field available and that is it.

That is one organization in town and does not include the softball teams in the organization or the High School teams once they start playing after High School season is over.

Increase parking and public safety (ie security cameras or LPR cameras). Every semester it seems like cars are getting broken in to at our parks. Heck they even target city hall. There are cameras there but can they read suspect license plates?

Be thoughtful about how to make the ballpark lawn chair friendly. Don't build a wall behind home plate that is so tall that you can't see over it if you're sitting in a lawn chair. If the fence is chain link, don't allow a horizontal bar to be at eye level of someone sitting in a lawn chair. Consider terraces so that multiple rows of lawn chairs can exist and fans can still see the field. Check out the baseball complex in Melissa, TX to see well done terraces. I don't think they have any stands on some of their fields - only terraces for lawn chairs and it works really well.

One other item….if the fields will be close, consider putting netting not just in the normal vertical spots from dugout to dugout, BUT ALSO covering all walkways in between the fields. I think the park in Waller (Lonestar?) is a good example of this. That way when foul balls are hit from all of the fields, everyone sitting there watching the games, talking, keeping score, etc. do not have to worry if they will be drilled in the head by a foul ball

BucketofBalls99 said:

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One other item….if the fields will be close, consider putting netting not just in the normal vertical spots from dugout to dugout, BUT ALSO covering all walkways in between the fields. I think the park in Waller (Lonestar?) is a good example of this. That way when foul balls are hit from all of the fields, everyone sitting there watching the games, talking, keeping score, etc. do not have to worry if they will be drilled in the head by a foul ball

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The softball fields in San Marcos have this with all the balls feeding to a central location for retrieval. At least, they did w0 years ago. It us a great design.