Elkins Voters to Decide on New Baseball, Softball Fields

Elkins' youth baseball and softball teams could have a home again after a special election Tuesday.

The city's voters will decide whether to add a temporary sales and use tax to pay for several new fields. The 0.75 percent tax would add 15 cents to a $20 purchase, for example, and would pay for up to $2.35 million in city bonds for the fields' construction.

At A Glance

Elkins Election

Where: Elkins Community Center, 162 Doolin Drive

When: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

What: Voters will decide two questions: whether to issue bonds to pay for new baseball and softball fields, and whether to use a temporary sales tax to pay for them.

Source: Staff Report

Early voting continues until 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Washington County Courthouse on North College Avenue in Fayetteville. Polls will open at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Elkins Community Center.

The tax would stick around until the bonds are paid. The project is intended to address a side effect of an earlier city vote: Voters in 2011 approved a property tax hike to build a high school.

Though the high school has its own baseball and softball fields, construction wiped out several fields for younger kids and summer programs. In a town where softball and baseball teams have competed for state titles, residents said lacking a home field hurts everyone involved, costing families time and money and undermining participation.

"We play our home games at West Fork, because they've been nice enough to let us use their fields," said David Harrelson, an assistant coach in the town's summer baseball and softball program and father of one of its 150 or so participants. "In some instances, parents are carpooling, you know, trying to get kids there."

Games for his team were set every day last week and shuffled everybody involved from West Fork, Farmington, Huntsville and Lincoln and back, Harrelson said. Games are often at 5:30 p.m. and trips to Lincoln can take an hour. Even practices often require heading out of town.

"I'm afraid some kids aren't playing, some kids that would've," Harrelson said, estimating participation has dropped by almost a third since three years ago. "A lot of parents can't drive around. It's not just the time, it's a matter of gas money."

Jason Justice, who works at his parents' Elkins hardware store, has led the charge to have the city build its own fields. The money likely would pay for four fields but decisions on where they'd go will wait until after the vote.

"Most people that we've talked to, anyway, are for it," Justice said, adding he saw the vote as the project's only chance. "The city was nice enough to pay for the election this time, but I don't know if they'd pay for it again."

The City Council unanimously sent the question to voters earlier this year, said Josh Bowen, a councilman.

"I have children myself, and Elkins has grown drastically in the last five to 10 years. We need more for our kids there in town. The whole area's just booming," Bowen said. "All the towns around us have ball fields. It's just time for Elkins to take those steps forward."

NW News on 06/21/2014

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