Walbridge: Rehton Park to remove dilapidated bleachers

5/25/2005

Walbridge will remove the backstop, bleachers, and benches from a baseball field at Rehton Park because they are unused and becoming dilapidated.

Council voted 4-2 last week in favor of the removal. Councilmen John Gregory and Ken Smith voted against the measure.

Councilmen Mark Timmons and Maureen Jacobsen suggested that the village concentrate its maintenance efforts on the field at Loop Park.

Mr. Gregory said he visited the park and sat on the bleachers. Nothing was wrong with them or the backstop, he said.He said that the people who live in that area installed the equipment with their own money.

"How can we tear down what the community has done for the village, with no good reason?" he asked.

Some residents who had been invited to the recreation committee's meeting to discuss playing T-ball at the park did not attend the meeting, said Ms. Jacobsen, chairman of the recreation committee.She said maintaining the equipment would cost the village money. "It is becoming quite rickety," she said after the meeting.

Mr. Timmons said that the equipment has been there for about 30 years, and the metal is "very well-rusted."