Quesnel Minor Baseball is sounding the alarm about the potential removal of Rotary Ball Field from Lebourdais Park.
That warning comes on the group’s Facebook page.
It says that a community engagement survey coming out from the City on the use of Lebourdais Park talks about future possible upgrades, and that in order for them to happen Rotary Ball Field will have to be dismantled.
Mayor Bob Simpson says all they are doing at this point is a planning exercise.
“We’ve done a lot of improvements all around Lebourdais Park. Improvements to the visitor centre, improvements to the arena and curling rink, the new playground, and we’re asking the question of what else do we need to do there to refresh the entire park.”
Simpson says that could include a connector trail that connects the visitor centre into the arena precinct, and into the new coffee shop at Shiraoi House.
He says that does beg the question of is there a higher or better use for the space where the ballpark is ?
Simpson says another initiative that Council has had for some time now is to try to build two premium ball parks, one at West Fraser Timber Park, and the other out in Barlow Creek.
He says if at some point in the future if there is a better use for that part of Lebourdais Park, it would be in conjunction with creating a better place for those ball users, in a ball specific venue that has improvements to that venue as well.
“If we can collapse ball to those two parks then we can actually start looking at extending their season, we can look at improvements such as lighting, a potential for supporting RVs parking there during ball tournaments etc.”
Simpson says there are two separate issues here.
“One is we are planning further improvements to Lebourdais Park to incorporate it as part of our hosting precinct, to make sure that everything is integrated and upgraded, and to make sure that its got the maximum utilization as possible.  And then the other part of that is if the outcome of that is moving that Rotary Ball Diamond to another location, West Fraser Timber Park or Barlow, then it would be incorporated in a way that their use would be taken into consideration.”
Simpson says they will be using a new online tool called bangthetable.com to engage the pubic on an ongoing basis, and that it will likely be launched shortly after Council gets a demonstration on how it works on September 28th.