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Garner Baseball Incorporated asks council to reallocate town baseball fields as middle school construction nears
Summary
Garner Baseball Incorporated told council that North Garner Middle School construction will remove the league's full-size field as early as fall 2025 and asked the town to provide field access or reallocate existing town fields; the group also requested a working team to update field allocation procedures.
Bryce Owens, president of Garner Baseball Incorporated, told the Town Council on April 1 that the league will lose its North Garner Middle School full-size field when school construction begins as early as fall 2025 and asked the town to identify a replacement field and form a team to reallocate town field assignments.
Owens, speaking during the petitions and comments portion, said GBI is a volunteer-run organization in its 70th season and that registrations have risen from 287 in 2020 to 488 rec players in the current season, across 45 rec teams and seven travel teams. He said the Pune Colt (13–18) league requires a full-size baseball field with 90-foot bases and a 60-foot, 6-inch pitching distance and that the only town field that can be configured to that size is Garner Rec Park 1, to which GBI currently has Friday-night access only.
Owens said the upcoming loss of the middle-school field will leave about 100 teenage players without a suitable place to play and that Garner Sports League currently uses Garner Rec Park 1 most of the week for travel practices. He asked council to help identify additional field access or an alternate solution and requested creation of a working group to reallocate town fields to reflect current registration numbers.
Owens noted he has met with Mayor Gupton, Town Manager Jody Miller, parks staff and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council chair and said he provided the council with an information packet by email. He invited council members to Garner Baseball’s opening day on April 12 at 11:30 a.m.
The council listened but took no formal action at the meeting; staff indicated matters that require more investigation will be referred to appropriate town officials or placed on a future agenda.
