News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The board overseeing Kirby Johnson Ball Park is discussing what they can do to afford important HVAC improvements and baseball equipment.
Fentress County Finance Director and Ball Board Member Tyler Arms said $10,000 has been set aside for the park to spend on improvements, but they cannot afford everything they want to purchase. Arms said they are looking at new tarps, portable pitching mounds, and most importantly HVAC equipment for one of the park’s buildings.
“We completely reconstructed it a few years back,” Arms said. “It was kind of rotten and falling down. Well they didn’t put any heat and air in the building, so there’s water lines and things of that inside there, so we’re requesting to use it to put just a mini split system in there to be able to heat and cool that.”
Arms said they received multiple bids for an HVAC system and all of them would cost most of the $10,000 set aside for the park. Arms said the money came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) during the pandemic and needs to be used before the end of this calendar year.
Arms said he does not expect to see any interference with the park’s usage if they do end up choosing one of the current HVAC bids.
“By the time they came in and put it in, it would – ball season would be wrapped up,” Arms said. “We’re trying to get a fall league going this year, we’re meeting about that tonight as well, so – but I don’t foresee them having to close the park. I mean, it’s probably a two or three day install. They can come and do it, we shouldn’t have any hiccups in operation at that point.”
Arms said the money was originally set aside to purchase playground equipment for the park, but it was determined that the park would be better off using that money elsewhere.
“Kirby Johnson’s basically just baseball, so as far as using it for playground equipment we didn’t, at the time me and Jimmy talked about it, we didn’t see the need to spend as much on playground equipment at Kirby Johnson,” Arms said.
