TYLERTOWN — The Walthall County School Board is considering adding a baseball field for Salem Attendance Center near the school on Rushingtown Road.
“There’s a lot of interest,” Superintendent Wade Carney told board members at the May 15 work session. “ I’d like to be able to tell them more than ‘we’re looking into it.’”
The Wildcats have not had a field of their own in many years, Carney said. They played on what was called the “Wampus Cat” field, then stopped and have since played at Tylertown, Dexter or Holmes Water Park.
Carney said the proposed site is about half a mile from the school on 16th Section land now leased to Nelson McKenzie. Before constructing a ballfield there, the district would need to have the land surveyed and have the site removed from the current lease agreement.
“I don’t see a problem with the site,” Carney said. “It’s fairly level.”
Board member Deloris Breland pointed out that the district had spent a lot of money on Tylertown’s baseball field, but “Tylertown’s site was not really suited to that,” Carney said. “This site at Salem is about the best site you could get.”
Community supporters and team boosters estimated costs of $4,000 for dirt work, $2,000 for a backstop, $4,000 for fencing, and $3,000 to $5,000 for a septic tank.
Carney said some of those might be a little low, with dirt work possibly costing up to $12,000 and fencing “probably more like $6,000 ... If you want the bottom line, we can get a total cost.”
Carney said the project could be done in phases, as the planned renovations at Tylertown’s gym are, and portable buildings for restrooms and concessions could keep costs down.
Breland said she had no big objections to building a baseball field at Salem, but the Tylertown gym “needs to be the priority right now. I think we should put (Salem) on the back burner till we finish the other.”
Later, during the regular meeting, the board approved moving forward with the THS gym renovations by drawing up specifications and advertising for bids for the lobby and visitor dressing rooms.
Home dressing rooms and other areas will be addressed in a later phase.
