At a June 25 meeting, the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education opted not to approve nearly $300,000 to redevelop the safety fencing around the baseball and softball fields and increase the seating capacity of the visitors’ bleachers in the football stadium.
“The need for this is really based upon safety,” said John Steltzer, the school’s athletic director. “The netting and poles we have that are protecting our baseball and softball areas are not sufficient right now, are getting old and they’re simply not tall enough to keep foul balls from the softball facility from going onto the tennis courts and potentially injuring tennis players.
“Also, it doesn’t keep balls from the baseball field landing onto the stadium and potentially injuring lacrosse and girls soccer players in the spring.”
Steltzer also noted that the nets aren’t sufficient to prevent foul balls from baseball practices and games from hitting cars and homes along Linden Avenue.
The board took issue with the large expenditure’s inclusion in the summer 2016 capital improvement budget. The project would increase that summer building fund from around $4.3 million to around $4.6 million. Board member Jennifer Cassell thought the improvements should have been discussed as part of the deliberations on the 2016 summer budget.
Board member Sara Dixon Spivy said the $300,000 expenditure felt a little “decadent” considering the district’s other capital expenses and that it went beyond addressing minimum safety concerns associated with stray balls. She said the bleacher improvements could be addressed over the long-term.
The board ultimately directed Steltzer to resubmit a scaled-down, less-expensive proposal that would more specifically address safety issues.
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