Path forward laid out for baseball field

Rage Baseball spokesperson Travis Arney and associate Darin Morgan attended last week's regular meeting of Moorcroft's town council to answer questions regarding their year-long absence from Moorcroft's Westview Park upper baseball field and their future plans – including how to deal with a particularly stubborn weed.

Arney expressed his wish to avoid speaking to the past, "Obviously, with things that have transpired with all this, I think we just need to stick with facts moving forward rather than beat up on a dead horse."

Councilman Dale Petersen agreed with his question, saying, "I'd just like to hear what your plans are moving forward – what are you guys thinking?"

Avery explained that Rage has every intention of building the field, but goats head weeds caused work to come to a halt.

"That's not your guys' fault, that's not our guys' fault. We've been educating ourselves on what this weed is, this goat-head thing; it kind of put dampers to what the realization of building that field was at that certain time and getting it done in a matter of time," he said.

"With the funds we had, we couldn't afford to put into that field to combat the goat-heads...we had all intentions of having sod brought over to start laying down sod and then it started to rain and it rained over here for three days. We came back and goat-heads were cutting out six inches of ground, which you guys went up and looked. Those things came back with a vengeance."

Councilwoman Heidi Humpal asked of Rage's response to the weeds, "When you guys decided that was a problem, was that the end of it for you? Who did you talk to about that?"

Avery answered, "Unfortunately, we went in trying to take care of our kids, we had a full baseball season, we spent, literally 50-60 some games on the road...At that point in time, I walked away."

Mayor Ben Glenn asked frankly, "So moving forward, does Rage still want to be affiliated or do you still want to help with the field up there? "

Arney assured the governing body of the team's intent to help.

"Obviously, with funds right now and whatnot, we can offer labor help. We have every intention to bring the team over, parents, whatnot to help get that field back in, the fence back in and what have you," he said. "I have the home plate, all new bags, the pitching mound, rubber – all sitting in my vehicle, right now."

He went on, "We bought that last year with all intentions of getting that done – those goat-heads are nasty. To be honest with you, to get it done correctly, that thing needs to be completely graded, either turfed or cut down a foot and sterilize it and bring in all new dirt, but then, you're going to run the risk of anything outside of that fence that may have them in it. "

The mayor explained that Moorcroft's public works department is well aware of the goat-head problem and had recently been working to remove more contaminated soil.

Public Works Director Cory Allison described how to control the thorny weed: "Your main way to kill goat-heads is water. Once you start new grass there and water all the time... down below, behind the little baseball field, there are hardly any goat-heads there now because we water it all the time."

When Avery mentioned the rain, Allison told him that with only dirt, "You've got to have the other vegetation to smother it out. We've done a lot of research on the goat-head, it's been there since [someone] brought some sheep manure in, back in the early 2000s, and it's been there since then."

Allison later acknowledged the manager's concern about playing on a field with goat-heads, though, "They're a horrible beast. We've fought them on these baseball fields for 20 years!"

Councilman Bill Stewart wished to address the lack of communication in the past.

"I understand the problem that you ran against, but where I'm having a hard time is that you had all winter to contact somebody to let them know because we kind of had the [Moorcroft baseball committee] wanting to use that field for practice and it was left the way you had it," he said.

"You should've been adults and said 'Hey, we're running into this problem, what can we do?' We had all winter."

Avery blamed "bad communications between everybody" and apologized, saying, "We'll come over and get stuff done. We know how to build the mound, I have the stuff to build the mound, mark everything out correctly, we'll all work as one team."

Morgan added, "We're not here to fight with anybody."

"Never did we have the intention of ever running away," Avery maintained. "We do want to make it right; we do want to offer labor to get that thing going."

Recognizing the time this effort will realistically take to make the field game ready and not just a place to practice, Glenn voiced his thoughts: "I think our goal is to have a section of practice up there so we can practice up there this year and we know this is probably a multiyear deal...If we could have practices, if we could have our maintenance director start the field coming, try some different things-water it until we can't water it anymore and see if the goat-heads start giving way to that, and the outfield, clean it, level it, like Cory said, they went in there and did a bunch of infield work, I believe we can make it usable for practice, maybe."

While not perfect for games, Glenn hoped it can soon be used for practices. The Rage managers agreed.

Humpal addressed the promise of sponsorship of which Avery had spoken last year: "You had multiple sponsors you said were willing to donate all sorts of things. Is that still something that is an option?"

"I switched jobs recently and am no longer with that company," the team manager stated. "I can contact some of them and ask them if they'd be willing to loan us the loader again or some more dirt if we need it and that kind of stuff, yes."

Moorcroft's baseball managers Krissy Hinkhouse and Courtney Reynolds were invited to speak to their concerns with Hinkhouse taking the lead, "We had our baseball board meeting Monday night and we made the decision, as a board, to work against letting Rage Baseball use our field. We have quite a few reasons for this, one of them being [that] they walked away from the field last summer. Had we known they had walked away, we could have been up there all summer and fall, too, doing the work we had planned originally."

She also talked about the goat-heads: "We know about the goat-heads, we had a company come up and he sprayed for us twice up there the first season we were up there because we did use that field in the 2022 season. It worked really well, the field was decent, [the company] did a great job killing off the goat-heads for the time we needed."

Hinkhouse shared another reason for their angst, "We got a Pepsi machine up at the concession stand, which is great. It was beneficial for the little amount of time we had it. Rage really wanted us to get that in there because they had planned on hosting a baseball game up at the field in July. They said, 'we will split the cost with you...', however, we sent the invoice to Travis and never heard anything back. Thankfully, we have great fundraisers, we had a really great turnout last year so as much as that cost hurt us, it didn't totally break us, but it would have been nice if they had followed up on their word."

"When this all started," Hinkhouse said, "My big point was [that] I get that these kids need a home and they need a place to play baseball, but it should not be done at the expense of our own Moorcroft kids and here we are, and this has been done at the expense of our Moorcroft kids... It's not just for us, it's not just for our kids, this is for Moorcroft as a whole, because we love this community... and we want to see something great happen with that field... We feel very slighted."

The mayor asked Hinkhouse and Reynolds what their plan would entail if they were given rein on the field's future.

"We are going to start looking for grants," Hinkhouse stated. "I've had a few companies reach out to me to try to get the field fixed and at least get it practice ready."

"I've had somebody volunteer to bring in some topsoil and one of the baseball coordinators from Newcastle would like to come walk this field with us so we can get their idea," she went on.

"Brian [Medford, manager of Newcastle's baseball program] would like to bring his tractor over to get that tilled up and get a better idea. He would like to build that pitcher's mound because he knows what he's doing. I've had a few businesses reach out to me to ask about how much money we need and we have a lot of community support and we will find the grants. We will do what we need to do to be able to get that field practice ready."

Allison spoke later about the efforts of the town to restore and improve, as far as they could, the upper field at Westview Park. A lot of work still remains, he said.

"We're not going to put any grass in," Allison continued. "We're going to leave it dirt. It's probably not regulation for baseball, but it is for softball. We just don't have the funds to put the grass in that infield. We cut down below the roots of the goat-heads, hopefully, we've got all of them out and we're going to try spraying a little bit."

He concluded, "What we really need is get water on that outfield and get it so they're not coming in the outfield and that will help. So, if we can spray the outfield and then, start watering it, fertilize it and weed-kill it like we do our parks, there's a good chance we may kill the goat-heads. It will be good enough to practice on for sure, but I don't think it will be game ready at all for this season. They could probably play some on there, will it be what I would call a standard field? No."

With all parties having expressed their sides of this apparent debacle, Glenn brought attention to the real issue and asked, "It's about the kids so if we can have more people help to get this going, is that something we think we could get along and do?"

Rage plans to join Glenn and Moorcroft's baseball managers at the field on Saturday, April 20, to gather the rocks that were spread with the dirt used to cover the infield last week, allowing the group to visit in a more informal atmosphere and perhaps gain lost ground. Arney will deliver the items previously mentioned for installation at that time.

Monday morning saw Allison working in the backhoe, tearing up the old asphalt path that predates the spacious concrete walking path that people use now, "We can extend that outfield out another 20-30 feet, which will help." He and crewman Dave Elliott ensured no further seeding from the goat-heads cleared in this endeavor by removing all soil agitated by this work to the landfill.