A youth baseball coach envisions five new baseball fields, a concession stand and an overflow parking lot to be built during the next three years.
For decades, the Trafalgar Youth Baseball nonprofit organization has played baseball, softball and T-ball on 6.1 acres behind Indian Creek Elementary School. The land always has been owned by the Hensley Township trustee but maintained by the baseball league.
Last week, Hensley Township Trustee Beth Baird gave the land to the baseball league for $1. Now, the baseball league is asking for an additional 2 acres of land for overflow parking and to set up a new entrance to the fields off State Road 135.
Youth baseball board member Aaron Clark wants to raise up to $50,000 from parents, community members and local business owners to make improvements to the property and hopefully see a 10 percent growth in children participating each year.
This spring, the youth baseball board members will start fundraising for the new facilities. Youth baseball board president Wes Young hopes to raise between $10,000 and $15,000 by the end of this year, he said.
In the future, the baseball league also is hoping to change their nonprofit status to allow them to raise more money. Currently, they can raise a maximum of $50,000 per year, but want to raise up to $250,000 per year, Clark said.
“I know the taxpayers will see a benefit of this, as opposed to being a run-down baseball field as it has in the past,” Clark said. “The kids need to have access to the best possible facilities.”
The baseball league had about 260 children participate in baseball, softball and T-ball last year, for ages 4 to 16 years old, Clark said. But more children who could be playing for Trafalgar’s baseball league are joining nearby city programs in Franklin, Center Grove or Edinburgh, Young said.
Clark has developed a three-year plan for improving the baseball fields, starting this spring. Clark wants to add about 900 feet of gravel to continue Nathan Drive off of State Road 135 and add another path to the baseball fields, he said.
The property owner is willing to give the baseball league 2 acres for overflow parking, in addition to the land needed to continue Nathan Drive, Clark said.
After this summer’s season ends in August, they want to reconfigure their four baseball diamonds to make more space for additional fields in the future, as well as for a concession stand with electricity, Clark said.
