JOPLIN, Mo. — Joplin’s softball players will get three fields with lights.

The City Council agreed Tuesday night to an amended plan to spend $1,098,000 to build three fields and rough in a fourth after an extended discussion about whether to illuminate the fields. The council previously had discussed a plan to build the fields in stages, initially without lights, at a cost of $725,000 for three fields and a roughed-in fourth.

“That’s excellent,” said Starbuck Wheeler, a local softball player who had led an effort to get the fields built at the Joplin Athletic Complex. Wheeler and a number of other players had opposed building fields without lights because games last past dark.

“That’s awesome,” Wheeler said after hearing the council’s decision. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, and they agreed there wasn’t any need to build fields without lights. They’d just be sitting out there unused.”

Wheeler took petitions signed by 2,000 people to the council more than two years ago asking that the fields be built. He said many people thought that softball fields were to be built in the first phase of the complex’s construction rather than the $1 million baseball field that was constructed there.

After Bill Scearce was elected to the council in 2008 and there had been no action on the players’ petitions, he took up the cause last year and advocated for the construction of the fields.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Scearce said of the council’s 9-0 vote to proceed with project, including the lights. “It’s a good start that will provide numerous recreational activities for our citizens.”

There was discussion by the council that the fields, when finished, could be marketed to attract traveling teams and tournaments to Joplin, boosting the city’s tourism industry.

Jack Schaller, the city’s assistant public works director, said in response to council questions that construction work could start by late September to get the dirt work done before winter. Though the fields would be sodded by spring, they will have to sit unused until next September to allow the grass to become established, the council was told.

The three softball fields will not have adjoining parking, a concession stand or restrooms, though those are available nearby in the complex.

City Manager Mark Rohr discussed a proposal to construct those amenities, along with dugouts, and finish construction of the fourth field as part of a parks and stormwater sales tax renewal. The council will soon decide whether to put a question on the April ballot for renewal of the quarter-cent tax. It will cost about $1 million to finish the plans for the four softball fields.

The city has spent about $7 million so far on the athletic complex, which this fiscal year has produced about $50,000 in revenue from the baseball field, tennis courts and soccer fields. Council members said Tuesday night that a softball complex might be an attraction to boost revenue.

In other business, the council approved a resolution supporting a proposal for an $11 million to $12 million renovation of the Oak Meadows Apartments, 1502 S. Michigan Ave. The project would be a joint effort by the Economic Security Corp. and Miller-O’Reilly Co., a property development firm from Springfield.

The ESC has been involved in renovating the Frisco Building, the Zahn Apartments, the Ridgway Apartments, the Drake Hotel in Carthage and some smaller buildings in the area to provide low-income housing. That would be the purpose of the Oak Meadows project.

Oak Meadows has 138 apartments. All of the apartments would be completely renovated, including new kitchens and bathrooms, John Joines of the ESC told the council. The council’s resolution is one of the items needed to help secure the financing and tax credits needed to pay for the project.

The council also approved the acquisitions of right of way from four properties as part of a pending project to widen Maiden Lane and install covered stormwater drainage. The easements are to be bought at 2306, 2328, 2330 and 2324 S. Harlem Ave., at costs ranging from $1,750 to $4,950 depending on the size of the easements.





Beverage sales



The City Council on Tuesday approved a measure that allows malt beverages to be sold at Memorial Hall events in addition to beer and wine. Promoters of each event need approval from the city manager’s office to sell alcohol; they had asked to be allowed to sell malt beverages.