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06-04-2005, 10:58 PM
City of Helena officials and some Lyndale Avenue business owners have agreed to team up and net baseballs escaping Kindrick Legion Field.
Work on a $13,000 net along the left-field wall has already started. While the net has not been raised, large poles have been erected. Parks and Recreation Department Director Randy Lilje said the net will be up before minor league players join the Helena Brewers in a few weeks. Legion baseball teams are already playing at the park.
Under the agreement approved May 23, three property owners will pay a total of $2,000. The Brewers ball club has agreed to kick in $667, and the city will pay the remainder out of the city parks improvement fund, Lilje said.
The agreement ends a year-long impasse between property owners and the city.
City Manager Tim Burton previously said he didn't think the infrequent home run balls posed a huge safety hazard. The ballpark, which has existed since the 1940s, predates current land use. But Burton said last week the current agreement was "reasonable."
Landowner and attorney J.C. Weingartner said Monday he was pleased with what he called a compromise. Businesses want to protect their property and the safety of passersby, he said.
In addition to safety worries and property damages, business owners claimed the home run balls posed a liability risk. On one day in 2003, 23 baseballs hit the offices of WTR Consulting Engineers LLC, according to employees there.
Last summer, the city erected an 40-foot tall net along the right-field wall, after a parent complained a child was nearly hit by a ball in Memorial Park. The left-field foul pole lies 335 feet from home plate. After the net is raised, only foul balls and home runs to dead center field should escape the park.
Work on a $13,000 net along the left-field wall has already started. While the net has not been raised, large poles have been erected. Parks and Recreation Department Director Randy Lilje said the net will be up before minor league players join the Helena Brewers in a few weeks. Legion baseball teams are already playing at the park.
Under the agreement approved May 23, three property owners will pay a total of $2,000. The Brewers ball club has agreed to kick in $667, and the city will pay the remainder out of the city parks improvement fund, Lilje said.
The agreement ends a year-long impasse between property owners and the city.
City Manager Tim Burton previously said he didn't think the infrequent home run balls posed a huge safety hazard. The ballpark, which has existed since the 1940s, predates current land use. But Burton said last week the current agreement was "reasonable."
Landowner and attorney J.C. Weingartner said Monday he was pleased with what he called a compromise. Businesses want to protect their property and the safety of passersby, he said.
In addition to safety worries and property damages, business owners claimed the home run balls posed a liability risk. On one day in 2003, 23 baseballs hit the offices of WTR Consulting Engineers LLC, according to employees there.
Last summer, the city erected an 40-foot tall net along the right-field wall, after a parent complained a child was nearly hit by a ball in Memorial Park. The left-field foul pole lies 335 feet from home plate. After the net is raised, only foul balls and home runs to dead center field should escape the park.