A softball diamond built within the last few years could require $50,000 in upgrades in order for the Greenfield High School team to host games as soon as 2014.
A scoreboard, fan seating and improved dugouts are just some of the amenities the diamond needs before the Hustlin’ Hawks could have home games at the high school.
The problem stems from a National Federation of State High Schools Association and WIAA regulation change coming down the pike that requires all varsity softball games to be held on fields with outfield fences at 185 to 235 feet from home plate.
Greenfield currently plays its high school softball games at Konkel Park, where permanent chain-link fences are set at 300 feet. Temporary fences at shorter distances have been put up in order for Greenfield to host WIAA tournament games, which already fall under the fence rule.
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According to Parks and Recreation Director Scott Jaquish, the city-run park has been the home of GHS games since at least the early 1990s, but the district is preparing for that marriage to possibly come to an end by the 2014 season when the new rule is implemented.
“The WIAA is making changes in its regulations and requiring fences now in order to continue to have competitions, and our understanding at Konkel Park, they’re not interested in putting up a fence,” Superintendent Conrad Farner said at a School Board meeting Nov. 12.
Jaquish, whose department does all the field maintenance and grass mowing at Konkel before and after every Hawk home game, said that’s not necessarily the case.
“I’ve never said no,” Jaquish said. “We’ve enjoyed hosting the girls games here as long as I can remember. We’ve had a great relationship with the coaching staff.
“We’ve always worked with (softball coach) Jack (Miller) or whomever to get the temporary fencing up (for tournaments) That takes a good amount of time, and we’ve accommodated, but it’s not the easiest thing to do.”
Jaquish said one to two district employees typically help his staff put up the district-provided temporary fence when needed. He said a “more permanent” temporary fence could be an option come 2014, but said funding for such a fence would “have to be worked out” with the district because the city would not have any other use for it.
“We’ve been completely open and completely receptive to accommodate that,” Jaquish said. “I thought we could work with the booster club. We will still work with them as far as utilizing that style of fence that goes up much easier and much quicker, if that’s what they want.”
Plenty of upgrades needed
If that’s not what the district wants, however, a lot of work will need to be done on the high school diamond, which was originally built for physical education use only, according to Farner.
“We always had in the back of our minds the idea that at some point we could use ours for game competition if we needed to down the road,” Farner said. “Our coach preferred to go to Konkel Park all these years, so there wasn’t any major desire to do that. But now it looks like we have to do it in order to be WIAA compatible.”
The superintendent said the field needs a scoreboard, electricity to and controls for the scoreboard, a press box of sorts and improved dugouts, which currently are small, fence-enclosed areas on either side of the field.
Two bigger issues are likely spectator seating and meeting the Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The field is on elevated land with limited areas for bleachers other than a small section of land directly behind the backstop. And the hilly terrain surrounding the diamond, as it exists now, would be difficult for spectators with disabilities to navigate.
It was also unclear when the junior varsity would play. That team currently plays at Konkel while the varsity team competes on an adjacent diamond. Farner suggested doubleheaders as a possibility.
School Board member Cathy Walsh said the field has been on the district’s buildings and grounds list of projects before but was surprised to see how much the upgrades would cost.
“I was kind of surprised that the amount was so large and wondered why, when the diamond is so new, it already needs upgrades,” Walsh said.
One of the advantages of holding games at Greenfield High School would be the revenue generated by concession sales. Currently, the Partners of Parks and Recreation, a non-profit organization, runs the concession stand for most games played at Konkel Park.
“If it’s at our diamond, we could use our concession stand and the booster club could generate some funds,” Walsh said.
In This article
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Greenfield High School
4800 S 60th St, Greenfield, WI -
Konkel Park
5151 W Layton Ave, Greenfield, WI -
just fyi
7:43 am on Thursday, November 29, 2012
just once I wish Farner could be honest and say we messed up. It is obvious to anyone that field ws not designed for gym class use, but rather both it and the baseball field were designed by folks who did not know the needs of either game. Further aggravated by poor installation. He just further demonstrates his ignorance with the suggestion they play double headers, they play softball in the spring and unless he is adding lights it gets dark well before a second game could be completed.
The decision is a no brainer - purchase proper temporary fencing for use at Konkel and let the teams continue to use one of the best facilties in the area. Fields are prepped and maintained by park and rec, who on the district staff would be getting the field ready to play the many hours it takes after those spring rains.The idea that spending $50,000 and still having a sub par facility, anyone notice how left field falls off so sharply or the wrong type of dirt was put into the infield for example. Not to mention the access to restrooms.
To even think that spending this money could be justified by the booster club selling a few candy bars just tells us how the fiasco of a conmcession stand ended up on the football field.
Do the sensible thing - work with Park and Rec, continue to use Konkel and purchase the temp fencing to make that a fully compliant facility. Enough money has been wasted via poor decisions at the high school.
Ann
8:39 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
please explain your statement of "fiasco of a concession stand ended up on the football field". The concession stand for the football field is fine - it was put in a space that totally made sense - right next to the bathrooms (even though there were not enough bathroom stalls built, but it is at the north end of the field. The concession stand in question and at issue which costed $68k - is on the north side of the school - right by the same baseball diamond that is now going to cost $50 K to fix and still not be up to par. So that being said - Farner is lying through his teeth that the baseball field was built for gym class - you don't need a fancy score board for gym class and you don't need a 68K concession stand for gym class - go back to his previious testimony and his croonie when they said when they built the consession stand they kept future growth in mind by putting in water, etc. - he knew what he was doing all along - in addition - don't forget that they hired an inept landscape company that put in the grass for not only the baseball diamonds but also the soccer practice field and grass around the school - they ended up bringing in a new landscape company a year later - to reseed/sod the 50K baseball diamond that still isn't right - because they were to freaking cheep to hire a true professional who would have guaranteed their work - really thinks the taxpayers in this community are stupid -
Mark Zabo
10:40 am on Thursday, November 29, 2012
Before any decision is made, you need to fire the people that made the original decision in the first place. They will make excuses and pass the buck, whos at blame. Taxpayers need to hold them all accountable, not just keep dishing out money to keep failing. Anybody with a half of brain knows the WIAA has field regulations.......why would you make the fields wrong in the first place. Who ever decided to put these fields in should should pay out of their own pocket to fix them.......or FIRE THEM!!!!!!!!!!
just fyi
12:51 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
issues such as this all go back as to how the school board decided to oversee the high school construction project - years earlier when Elmdale and Maple Grove were built a citizen oversight committee was formed to oversee and make the inevitable decisions in large projects such as this, that worked out well as taxpayers had some degree of oversight and could curtail some of the wasteful spending. On the high school project that role was filled by district staff and we can now all see the difference.
KHD
1:28 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
I'm glad people are finally realizing how Conrad Farner screwed this up. What else did he screw up? Was the taxpayers money used wisely? Was there possibly some kind of kickback scheme? There needs to a full audit done on where all the money was spent and what on. People this is a serious matter and needs to be investigated by someone.Tens of millions of dollars were spent. Did we get a fair shake for our money? The taxpayers should demand an accounting of every penny spent. Can Conrad be held liable for misappropriation of funds? The whole thing came to light on how much that concession stand cost. $68,000?? Please call the school board members and demand that an audit be done. This stinks to high heaven. Something is not right here.
John Seymour
5:59 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
Once a crook...always a crook. Something is fishy here. Conrad has always done things backdoor..."keep it quiet and don't disagree with me." The people in Greenfield are being led by an idiot who has such a high opinion of himself...that's a bad combo.
GreenfieldParent
10:53 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
Thumbs up.
Concerned
8:03 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
More bad decisions by this administration...
How could these issues have been overlooked? WOW! The board members that support this mess need to be voted out at the next election.
Ann
8:27 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
You mean the same board members that decided to build a new administration building without having a buyer for the old one first - so know the taxpayers are paying for 2 adminstration buildings?
Ann
8:28 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
I don't blame anyone at the High School level - I blame the Board and the Administration. The Board pretty much gave Farner and his croonies free reign with no oversight and Farner totally f...... this community.
Ann
8:30 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
In addition, the high school did need to be built - however, the extras (admin building) did not.
GreenfieldParent
10:52 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
I blame the Superintendent that misled the Board. I blame the rest of the Administration that was too afraid to say something. It is good that the current Board (which includes some that were misled), doesn't seem to want to be misled again and is holding the Administration accountable. Farner needs to go.
John Seymour
9:52 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
Greenfield Parent...the administrators are all afraid because Conrad will can them if they say anything. The guys is a lunatic. He screams and hollers at anyone who disagrees with him. I know that people don't want to believe this, but I've been there. I know what really goes on behind the scenes. There is constant money shifting from balance to balance.
GreenfieldParent
11:04 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
"...which was originally built for physical education use only, according to Farner."
Lie-then why the concession stand?
“We always had in the back of our minds the idea that at some point we could use ours for game competition if we needed to down the road,” Farner said.
Lie-Why wasn't it designed to be ADA accessible? Why was it never finished? Why were spectators never a consideration? Why does it face the wrong way?
“Our coach preferred to go to Konkel Park all these years, so there wasn’t any major desire to do that. But now it looks like we have to do it in order to be WIAA compatible.”
True, because the HS had no proper field. False, the District never worked well with the City or other school districts.
"One of the advantages of holding games at Greenfield High School would be the revenue generated by concession sales. Currently, the Partners of Parks and Recreation, a non-profit organization, runs the concession stand for most games played at Konkel Park."
Sounds like the City should stick it to the District so that it could make money on its field.
Concerned
6:34 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
These exposed lies and deception is just the top layer that the community is seeing. What other lies are going on in the GF education system?
just fyi
8:53 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
one never knows what will cause the tax payer and/or the board to stop and take a hard look at what is going on in the district. Appears to me to often common sense is ignored to in favor of the "professional judgement" of staff. Just a few examples of what the taxpayers have been told over the recent years:
- "a new high school was needed in order to attract better teachers to the district", besides being a slam at the teachers in the building it looks to me we have seen a number of teachers leave the district who have been well respected
-"the new facilities are needed to better educate today's students", when recent test results showed high school performance levels to be less than satisfactory, they could not blame the building so they blamed the test
-"we can go ahead with new district offices, if the old district office property does not sell I can support it within the present budget", how has that gone? what educational programs have been shortchanged so that the district has a new office area?
The softball, baseball fields and football concession stand are just the latest examples - who on the board will be willing to step forward and push the issue? Who has any doubt this is affecting the education of the kids in that building and a waste of taxpayers money, I know it is old school but based on what is known thier grade needs to be an F, there is still time for them to improve that score - will anyone put in the extra effort?
John Seymour
9:54 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
The high school was needed because the old one was falling in the ground. There were 1-2 inch cracks in the walls and pipes were breaking. It was an issue out of the District's control. The water table caused it. Now...how the money was spent and on what is another matter. The misdirections of funds for a C.O add on was a mistake. Until the building on Chapman was sold...nothing should have been done.
just fyi
10:45 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
I did not mean to infer a new building was not required (just not what was necessarily constructed ) only to point out some of the history of misinformation that has been a part of that process
Kurtis Scardino
11:51 am on Friday, November 30, 2012
they need a new football field to many holes in the field
Ann
3:20 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012
Sorry to disappoint you Kurtis - but the football field is brand new - it was completely ripped out in the late fall of 2009 I think ( the late fall after the new school opened). They ripped out the old sod, re-graded and installed new sod - they did half of the field in Dec - I remember driving up to school on a friday nite for a school event we were to get snow that nite and they were installing the sod - ran out of time before the snow began - they finished the field the next spring. No one (not even the varsity football team) was allowed to use the field that next season - except for Varsity to play the homecoming game. However, it poured buckets during the homecoming parade and the teams tore up the field and it hasn't recovered since then.
Administration didn't want to go with turf - said it was too expensive - however, with the cost that they paid for the sod and all of the water bills, plus having to stripe the field every week - turf would have been a better option plus save taxpayers money.
Ann
3:22 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012
And that is also when they did the new stands that don't work either - did you notice the bottleneck for getting in and out and how the band now has to sit on the track?
Kurtis Scardino
9:16 pm on Friday, November 30, 2012
I just saying that it sucks Whitnall>Greenfield
KHD
7:28 am on Saturday, December 1, 2012
Kurtis, I read your profile, and you do posts here for your English class? I have no idea what your post means. Being a senior you should be able to write ONE sentence. Ohh BTW, you posted here at 11:51 am, I hope you were on lunch.