Ward County commissioners approve ballpark renovations

MONAHANS, Texas (KOSA) -The Ward County Commissioners approved to spend $5.5 million dollars toward renovating its ball parks.

Since these areas haven’t been upgraded since the late 60′s, county leaders decided to make a change.

The fields are rocky, uneven and most of the metal fencing is rusty. Which is why they plan to renovate all six fields, and add a new one.

The extra one is going to be a coach pitch field for their youngest players.

It also concerns the commissioners that kids are the ones playing on older fields that could possibly injure them.

“With the new renovations, I think we’ll be able to keep the kids and the families, super safe and just keeping the best facility for them,” said Marie Thee, the Director of Sports and Recreation for Ward County.

Especially with the new additions to Ward County like a new jail and upgrades to its hospital, this is something for the people.

“We just built a park right near the event center. So we’re really more into I guess quality of life stuff. Stuff for our kids, and our youth in the community.” said Ward County Commissioner, Eddie Nelms.

Apart from renovating their fields they also want to make sure that the areas where the players and their families are sitting are also up to date.

The dugouts are full of rust since they haven’t been fixed since the 1960′s.

Nelms says Monahans is slowly growing.

With the addition of new parks, new apartments, schools, he and the commissioners are excited for what’s to come.

“We’re expecting to do around 200 new houses over by the event center and the new school over the next few years. So it’s good. It’s something I’ve always worked hard trying to get, and get the success for our community,” said Nelms.

This ball park holds tournaments for T-ball and little league games.

In the last tournament, they had over 450 games played, and over 800 kids playing.

The contract was awarded to FEHR Metal Building in Seminole.

Nelm says they don’t have much experience making baseball fields, but he says that’s where the county can help them to make their vision a reality.

Commissioner Nelm says that some parts of these renovations could be done by September, but they expect the entire project to be complete before March.

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