Ball league cries foul

Apr. 10—GARLAND — Members of the Garland Softball League thought that some of the grant money for Cain Park in Garland was to be split between the league and the park after a decision at the March meeting. That changed when the Garland Board of Commissioners met earlier this week.

The Garland softball field has been a topic of contention over the last year, with heated discussions and allegations thrown around. The field was temporarily closed for a safety assessment, due to numerous needed repairs that had not been ascertained at the time.

The Cain Park project was expected to see bathroom facilities and a walking track.

After the vote at the last meeting, Garland Softball proponent and local resident Wendy Taylor took to Facebook to express her ire, stating that it was all a "pissing contest" and a giant "FU" from the town, and a "bad decision."

Mayor Austin Brown said that with the idea to split the grant money, a change of heart happened, and he was not able to pinpoint a specific reason.

"They may have felt like in the beginning it was a good idea to split it between the two parks," said Brown, who did not cast a vote on the issue. "And now I am not real sure what happened."

Brown said that he was looking into it, and that they voted to return it back to the original grant.

Whether or not that it could even be legally changed was not entirely clear.

Brown did say that there are plans to continue with the softball league and look into more grant opportunities.

"It's just a matter of taking care of one grant and moving onto another one."

"Every penny of the state grant is being used in this entire area," Taylor wrote.

"What the commissioners proposed and voted on last month was to scale down the bathroom and scrap the walking track because of the amount of money that it would require to grade, level and pave the 5 foot wide concrete track when the town already has a walking track at the softball complex. They decided to use part of the grant money to make improvements at the softball complex and just build a single bathroom at Cain Park.

"That all changed tonight with Ralph's vote. All money will be directed to Cain Park with no consideration of the amount of people that utilize the softball complex and support the town with their local purchases. We just got a big FU from the town."

Taylor said that this all changed after Ralph Smith Jr. changed sides from the previous meeting, where the vote to give money out of the grant to the softball league was discussed, according to the March minutes. Smith intimated that there were no bids when they first went looking for bids.

He said that he didn't see a need for a second walking track with the high expense of cement, and aim for a smaller bathroom at the park.

Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn R. Melvin questioned whether they were even allowed to do that with grant money, and the minutes indicate that Commissioner Jo Strickland and Smith had looked into it and that they could. Strickland said that the grant would have to be amended and a public hearing held. The vote passed 3 to 2, with Melvin and Commissioner Barbara Peterson casting the dissenting votes.

At the April meeting, Smith, Peterson and Melvin voted to return the grant to what it was.

Taylor has also made accusations that "The league is once again singled out and discriminated against because the rules applied to them aren't applied equally to everyone else" over liability waiver requests that were made by the town.

Taylor also wrote that "certain commissioners are still doing Winnie's dirty work" in regards to former Mayor Winifred Murphy. As for the three commissioners who voted to return the grant to its original state, she said that people should "express your thanks to them for screwing over the Garland Softball League once again."

Back in October, quite a few hefty numbers have been thrown around regarding repairs for the Garland softball field, with estimates to replace lights being everywhere from around $130,000 to close to $160,000. The expectation is that the current style of lights will be phased out, with lighting options turning toward LED lights, which is a much more expensive option, town officials said.

In September, Melvin reported they were still working on receiving quotes for fencing and lighting repairs at the softball park. She had stated previously that she reached back out to a previous vendor for the lighting repairs and asked if he could work on the pricing due to limited funding the town has for this project, and the estimate is essentially the same as it was at $157,000.

The field and complex have been the site of considerable vandalism over the years. Some fundraising efforts have been worked on, but overall there is still a large amount of money needed to get the space up to standard. Exactly where that money will be coming from has not been solidified at this time, but there has been some money set aside in the town's budget, and given to the association, over the years.

A multi-phase plan was created back in 2016 for the Curtis D. Cain Memorial Park on South Bladen Avenue, which services the entire community. That process was temporarily stalled out due to COVID, but has since regained momentum.

This week also has seen two different sign-up events for the ball league as well.

Reach Emily M. Williams at 910-590-9488. Follow her on Twitter at @NCNewsWriter. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our new Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.