Residents urge city to keep Wagner Park youth fields as Arnold Heritage Center is discussed

Scores of residents and volunteers urged the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to preserve youth sports facilities at Wagner Park rather than relocate them to make room for a proposed Arnold Heritage and Innovation Center, during the board’s public-comment period.

Speakers said the fields at Wagner Park host long-running youth programs and generate local economic activity and volunteer opportunities. “I just personally feel that relocating the Cal Ripken Baseball, Frank Mullins youth football and cheerleading fields to an alternate location would be a detriment to the children who participate in this program,” said Greer Stevenson, a Tullahoma resident and youth coach. Several other speakers — including Mark Moran, Lisa Mullins Beasley, Travis Moore and Charles Bridal Rogers — told the board the site is central to hundreds of local children and that recent city and…