Baseball may strike out without lighting upgrade

With 85 teams using the baseball fields at H.V. Griffin Park, upgraded lighting must be installed or there can be no night games this coming year, Shelbyville City Council was told during its study session last Tuesday.

The council will vote this week on spending an estimated $64,500 to replace field lighting poles.

A number of concerned parents of players attended the study session to express their support. Schools, adult teams and other leagues use the fields for both practice and tournaments.

City manager Ed Craig said the wooden poles at Jerry Naron Field, installed in 1976, are rotten and were declared dangerous by representatives of Shelbyville Power.

The cost for the utility to take down the poles would be an estimated $9,100. The fixtures would be removed and salvaged and the pole would be cut off 8 feet above ground level to keep all the electrical wiring in place for future improvements.

"This is something we need to do," Craig said, stating that Jerry Naron Field would remain unlit.

But Eugene Ray Field has the same problem with four of the wooden poles, while the four existing metal poles are fine. However, all of the poles will require new lighting fixtures.

Assistant Director of Park & Athletic Leagues Bryan Dial had a lighting study done on the large field and Craig said the amount of illumination is important because people have filed lawsuits against cities when injuries were sustained where fields were not adequately lit.

The council looked at four different replacement options before favoring the third estimate at $64,500.

That option would have Shelbyville Power removing four damaged 85-foot infield wooden poles from Eugene Ray Field, as well as the lighting fixtures, and would transfer all the overhead primary, secondary conductors, transformers and hardware to four new 70-foot metal poles.

The city utility would then install 54 1,500-watt fixtures on all eight poles and upgrade overhead transformers to handle the additional lighting load by adding two new 25 KVA transformers while using the existing 50 KVA transformers removed from Jerry Naron Field.

Another similar option would have cost an estimated $100,400 for the instillation of underground conductors.

A fourth option would have employed the company Musco to install the metal poles and underground secondary conductors, but while the company warranties its work for 25 years, the estimated cost was in the $150,000 range.

Councilman Al Stephenson pointed out that with the bad economy now, wooden poles would be much cheaper, but Dial said that wooden poles could not be sanctioned since the law changed in 1996. The current poles at the fields were grandfathered in, Dial explained.

Craig added the difference between wooden and metal poles is about $800.