By Traci Chapman/Staff Writer
published Jan. 5, 2008

Worried a $2.9 million baseball facility bond plan might fail to get a chance at bat, residents Wednesday gathered in City Council chambers, calling for city officials to include the measure on the April general election ballot.

The baseball complex plan is one of two bond proposals, which total about $8 million, that will go to a vote April 1. In addition to the baseball complex, the second bond measure calls for improvements to a two-mile stretch of Czech Hall Road.

Ward 1 Councilman Jay Adams said he is “leading the charge to get the word out” to voters about the baseball complex.

Adams said he is passionate about the project and will take whatever time is necessary to do what’s “right for Mustang’s kids.”

That included mustering public support at the Council’s special meeting when he said he thought Mayor Jeff Landrith was going to try to knock the baseball complex off the April ballot.

Landrith said the proposal was pushed through Council “too quickly” and has expressed disagreement with the new complex’s proposed price tag. He said he wanted Council members to take a more detailed look at options for the facility — including using volunteer labor or making improvements gradually — to lower its cost.

“I had a feeling that the mayor was going to try to get other Council members to take the baseball fields off the ballot,” Adams said. “I had already started a network of people to help get this passed. I asked them to contact the mayor to tell them that we want the chance for this to be on the ballot. Not only did they call him, they came to the meeting.

“I was floored when I saw the number of people who came to the meeting,” he said. “Here I had this big presentation, and I didn’t even need to say a word.”

Landrith said he is against the multimillion-dollar baseball complex. He said costs could be cut by building the fields as funds become available — at cost or discount through volunteer effort — to lessen any tax increase assumed by homeowners.

“I think you should consider a project of about $1 million,” he told residents. “I think the community should be more involved, make it a community project. I have a problem with this ($2.9 million) amount.”

Several residents who came to the meeting disagreed with Landrith’s proposal to cut the facility’s costs and urged Council members to put the matter to a vote of the people.

“We need a top class facility in Mustang, and our kids deserve it,” resident Ray Meier said. “If it’s built by volunteers, it will look like it’s built by volunteers.”

Other residents urged Council members to consider what they said was not only the short-term impact a new facility would have on players but how it would affect the community as a whole.

“What I think it means to the community — I don’t view it as being about baseball, I view it to be about families,” resident Van Kerns said. “These experiences will last players and their families well beyond their years in sports.”

Judy Lorenzen, the mother of two children, agreed.

“I think baseball is something that brings people together. It is something that would mean so much to our community and would bring people into our community,” she said.

Mike Clark, athletic director for Mustang Public Schools, said although it is sometimes hard to see a financial payoff for a large project, the benefit to the players and the community would outweigh any costs associated with it.

“It’s about the camaraderie, it’s the people you meet along the way,” he said. “It’s like with the district and what we need for our kids. The question is — how do you go about the process without falling further behind? There’s just no doubt we need a quality facility.”

The April election will also include a separate ballot for $5 million of improvements to Czech Hall Road. The proposed project encompasses a “total rebuild” of two miles, split into two one-mile sections between SW 59th Street and state Highway 152 and south from state Highway 152 to SW 89th Street and includes the addition of a turn lane into Mustang Centennial Elementary and improvements to drainage ditches.

Ward 4 Councilman Keith Bryan previously voted against including the baseball fields on the April 1 ballot. Bryan said he had no problem with the proposed price or with the project, but he was concerned about pitching the proposed multimillion- dollar baseball facility to voters, in light of the “sound defeat” of a December 2006 proposal for a similar complex.

Although city staff scaled back the current proposal to $2.9 million from the previous nearly $4.5 million measure rejected by voters, he said he was worried voters would not realize there are two separate ballot issues, and they could reject both as a package deal.

“I didn’t want the roads project to fail because those repairs are absolutely necessary,” he said. “However, once we voted to include both on the ballot, I thought it was right to let it (the baseball facility) proceed to a vote. It’s up to residents now.”

Council members ultimately unanimously approved both bond issues. Landrith said although he still believed the baseball facility cost was too high, he would agree to the issue being decided by residents.

“I’m going to let you make my vote tonight,” he said.

Adams said if the attendance at Wednesday’s meeting is any indication, there is real hope the baseball complex will become a reality.
“Here were all these people who came out to tell the Council what it meant to them,” he said. “It was a Wednesday night while OU was playing, and that should tell you something.”

In other business, City Manager David Cockrell received approval to spend up to $200,000 to complete the ice storm debris cleanup contract. He said while he might not need to use extra funds, he did not want to delay the project.

“I don’t know if I’ll go over the previous allowance, but I’d like the ability to get this done without having to revisit it with Council,” he said. “We’ve had a surge of people putting debris out at the last minute, and that may impact us.”

City staff are following a painstaking documentation process with the aim of requesting federal and state relief for costs associated with the storm, he said. If approved, the city’s cost could be as little as 12.5 percent of the total outlay connected to clean-up and other related services.

Cockrell said the project could be finished “within five, six, seven more days.”

City Council also accepted a bid of $199,500 from Pierce Manufacturing for a tanker truck for Mustang Fire Department. Purchase of the truck was approved by voters in a general obligation bond election in December 2006.