By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – The city of Waldport has some new, old baseball and softball fields.
The Lincoln County School District has deeded over 3.58 acres of property containing Kendall Field to the city with the idea that it and the Waldport Junior League Sports Association will do more to care and improve them.
“It just makes sense to belong to the city,” said school district facilities supervisor Rich Belloni. “It’s a win for everybody.”
The district owned the property through a transfer decades ago that required it be used as a baseball/softball complex.
Belloni said the idea of transferring the property to Waldport first came up this spring when Seashore Family Literacy returned the former elementary school cafeteria and gym to the school district. Waldport city manager Dann Cutter couldn’t convince the school district to give the property to the city, so he asked about Kendall Field.
Belloni said the district had never done much of anything with the fields, which in addition to small stands for each field also has restrooms and an enclosed concession stand. Over the years, depending on the strength of the baseball/softball group at the time, he said, “sometimes it looks really good and sometimes not so good.”
Belloni said some people could argue that the school district should sell the property and hope a developer would build apartments or houses there. But covenants on the property from the original donation prevent it from being used for anything but a field for kids.
“The city wants to keep it as a public place,” Belloni said. “Kids need places to play and there’s never enough fields.”
Families in the Waldport community created the first field in the early 1960s on property owned by Harold and Barbara Helgerson, according to their son, Robin Helgerson of Waldport.
It had been used for about three years when their son, Kendall, 12, died in 1966 from appendicitis. He was one of the original players to use the field and the Little League board approached the family about naming the field after him.
The Helgersons later deeded the property to the school district with a covenant that it remain a sports field.
Cutter, who has been more aggressive than previous city managers in acquiring property for the city, said he and the Waldport Junior League simply want a cleaned up and improved facility.
“The hope is to make it a lot nicer,” he said.
One of the problems with that, Cutter said, is that the sports league can’t apply for grants to make improvements because it didn’t own the property. He said now they can partner with the city to do that.
There are actually two parcels in the transaction – one of 2.43 acres and a second of 1.15 acres. The south part of the property also serves as a parking lot and trailhead for the John Mare Woodland Trail, which the city hopes to eventually connect with a loop along Crestline Drive and Lint Slough.
For now, there are weeds growing high into the fences, dugouts are neglected and dirty and the infield are a bumpy mixture of hard dirt and weeds.
“These could be two very nice fields,” Cutter said. “They just need to be cleaned up a bit. The property could be a nice asset for the city and the Waldport Junior League.”
And that’s what the youth sports association wants.
The group organizes a variety of sports for kindergarten through eighth-graders, including flag football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball. It soon hopes to add youth wrestling. Association president Tina Strack said the association had an estimated 300 kids participate in sports this year, including 100 in baseball and softball.
Strack said the “fix-it” list for the two fields is long, including improving bleachers and securing dugouts at both fields, sprucing up the two buildings, better field maintenance, and replacing a failing backstop. A long-term goal is building an indoor batting area for use during the winter.
Strack said not owning the property kept the association from pouring money into improvements when the school district was the owner. The school district’s agreement with the city says it must be used for sports fields for 30 years.
Now, she’s eager to work with Cutter and the city to begin work.
“We’re absolutely dedicated to having fields for kids in the community,” Strack said.