Diamonds In The Rough - Condition Of Outfield Grass At City Ball Fields Fuels Criticism, Plan For Action

The condition of the outfield grass on the youth baseball and softball fields at the Glenwood Recreation Complex was the focus of intense discussion at a meeting last Tuesday at City Hall.

The meeting involved city officials, park board members and representatives of youth sports organizations that utilize city athletic fields.

With the youth baseball and softball seasons about to kick into high gear, the abundance of dead grass and problems with moles in the outfields of the city-owned ball fields has become a source of frustration for coaches, parents, players and some city officials.

“Those fields have been neglected. I don’t have a gentle way to say it. It’s been on my list since I got on the council,” Glenwood City Council member Laurie Smithers said. “They are now embarrassing to the point that we as a city are now looking at ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money to come in and get this back on track – to hire a company to come in, get it reset and go forward.”

Several reasons and opinions regarding the conditions of the ball fields were shared at the meeting, including the lack of funding, equipment and manpower in the city’s parks and recreation budget.

Glenwood Park Superintendent Ron Mattox said he simply doesn’t have the equipment or the manpower to properly maintain the outfield grass on the ball fields in addition to the other duties that come with maintaining city parks and other recreational facilities.

“During spring time, I have soccer starting, I have baseball starting, pickleball courts need to be taken care of – all of those facilities have a bunch of different things that need to be done at once,” he said. “If I had a crew that I could send – ‘You guys do this, you guys go to this and you guys go do this,’ - it would be completely different.”

In addition to Mattox, the city has one other full-time and two part-time employees working in the parks and recreation department.

City council member Natalie McEwen questioned why ball field maintenance wasn’t a higher priority in the park board’s initial budget presented to the city for approval.

“The city gave you the opportunity to add your priorities into your budget,” she said “I know there were cuts (to the park board budget), there were cuts across the board.  There were high priorities for every division.

“This is just taking care of the grass, taking care of the facilities to where they’re usable. The ball fields don’t even look usable right now. There needs to be a middle ground where we can at least get them looking decent.”

Interviewed several days after the meeting, Glenwood City Administrator Amber Farnan said she believes the ball field situation wouldn’t have gotten to this point had there been better communication between the city council and park board.

“It was probably a breakdown in communication between us and them and maybe too much workload and not enough employees,” she said. “That wasn’t communicated very well. Just, more communication would have changed a lot.

Dryer than normal weather conditions over the past year have probably contributed to the condition of the ball fields also.

“We don’t have a water source down there, so that does make it difficult as well,” Farnan said.

The city council and park board have agreed to hire an outside firm to come in and carry out a two-year maintenance plan to re-establish and maintain the outfield grass. Sealed bids are currently being accepted for a two-year maintenance plan for all city-owned baseball and softball outfields, including the Vine Street ballfield. Separate bids are also being accepted for a two-year maintenance plan for all city-owned soccer fields.

Glenwood Baseball and Softball Club President Shawn Koehler, who has over 20 years of experience working in the agronomy field, shared his expertise at last week’s meeting. Koehler said the conditions at the ball fields can be fixed, but it will take time and a long-term commitment from the city.

“We’re going to have to play catch-up,” he said. “What we’ve seeded now is fine, but we’re going to have to reseed in the fall.  “So then, how do we make it so it doesn’t die? We need to have phosphorous and potassium applied. Phosphorous and potassium are critical.

“Once we get to that point, we’re going to have beautiful green grass – we’re going to have a good, healthy green grass to take care of. The maintenance schedule from that point needs to be to make sure we don’t have weeds and making sure that the fertility is up.”

Koehler noted that maintaining a healthy sports turf is different than maintaining grounds at Glenwood Lake Park.

“The sports turf is going to be harder to maintain than the park and Ron is right, he does not have the equipment to do it,” Koehler said.

The good news, Koehler added, is the baseball and softball club is in the process of working out a lease agreement with ArgriVision for a tractor that will cost the club zero dollars this year. The tractor can be used for a variety of purposes on the city athletic fields, including aerating and mowing.

The city is expected to open the sealed bids for field maintenance on May 14 and award the contract during the city council meeting that same night.

Glenwood Park Board Chair Randy Romens said he fully supports the effort to fix the issues at the ball fields, adding that the issue should be a topic of discussion when the park board’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year is being established next winter.