Joplin City Council Considering Artificial Turf For Joe Becker & Wendell Redden

11 April 2017

The Joplin City Council has asked City staff to prepare a contract to install artificial turf at the infields at Joe Becker Stadium and Wendell Redden Field.  The Council made that request at a Monday night (4/10) work session.  Joplin Mayor Mike Seibert tells News Talk KZRG why the new turf makes economic sense.

lets us be able to even increase even more the usage of those fields and also to really significantly drop the ongoing maintenance.”

The cost of the project is listed at $461,363.  Most of the money to pay for the artificial turf is already in the City’s parks and stormwater sales tax account. The rest will come from a $200,000 cell phone settlement that had been reserved for a new ramp at Memorial Hall.
Seibert goes on to say the artificial turf will allow more tournaments with more teams to play in Joplin. And those teams will spend money here. “And all of those hotel rooms and all the meals and everything that they’re purchasing within our community is definitely a benefit to the business owners within the community.”

Craig Hull with the Joplin Sports Authority says there will be over 200 baseball games at Joe Becker Stadium this year and about 145 at Wendell Redden Field…and those numbers will grow with the addition of the artificial turf infields.

The vote to prepare the contract was 7-2, with Councilmen Dan McCreary and Phil Stinnett opposed.

 

Source:newstalkkzrg.com