School district starts baseball field renovation

The Pahrump Valley High baseball field renovation is underway by the Nye County School District after a series of meetings with concerned parents and supporters.

Cameron McRae, Nye County School District operations and maintenance supervisor, and the parents and supporters of the baseball team have come to an agreement. Both parties are working closely to solve the problems with the baseball field reported to the Nye County School Board meeting on April 14.

The main problem reported to the board was the unevenness of the field. The parents complained that the unevenness was a danger to the players and causing injuries.

McRae admitted at that board meeting that budget cuts cut the water and maintenance to the field and he believes this is why the field is in such poor condition. He emphasized the money never returned to his budget.

The maintenance supervisor announced last week that some renovations on the baseball field have started. He said the field was recently aerated and fertilized. He added that the irrigation sprinkler times were also adjusted.

“I made the decision to up the water times during the summer and to let the grass grow with no mowing,” McRae said. “Also we are doing the rodent control to help with the unevenness in the field.”

GeGe Murphy is in charge of the parent committee and said everything was going well. She said the committee formed to help the district said that they are in full agreement with what McRae is doing and will be helping the school district out with the costs of fertilizer for the summer.

“We are happy with the way things are going with the baseball field and the progress made by the school district,” she said. “The only unfortunate thing is we were not able to get any money for a shade cover for the baseball field.”

She said a shade cover will have to come with fundraising.

McRae said the cost to do the renovations will come out of the general fund.

“I will put off other things to offset this extra cost,” he said. “This is something that will be tricky to do.”

He said the field will be ready to go by next year’s baseball season, but not at 100 percent.

“We should have it at 80 percent,” he said.

He believes it won’t be at 100 percent because there are just too many things to do to the field.

When asked about the injuries he replied, “We have had people get injured on our fields before and people get hurt on the best fields in the world.”

He added, “The fact that parents want the field improved does not make the field less dangerous.”

In addition to the grass, he said the backstop for the baseball field is on the agenda for the next school board meeting on June 23.

“My goal is to have the new backstop before next spring,” he said.