Residents of Fairview are expressing their displeasure at a planned baseball fence in Queen Elizabeth Park, which may dissect an existing toboggan route, and have started a petition.
The fence has not yet been constructed, but posts have been sunk into the grass near the first base line. The fence is part of an extensive $20,000 renovation of the park by Nelson Minor Baseball, which also includes new sod and shale that has been installed by volunteers.
The proposed fence will be 25 feet high, and is intended to keep the ball within the field during play.
“The idea was to keep the ball in the park. They’ve had people overthrowing first, foul balls seem to head out that way and they’ve had a couple of players injure themselves on that slope,” said Colin Innes, Nelson’s director of public works.
Innes said he hadn’t received any feedback on the park’s upgrades prior to Monday, but once he became aware of an online petition he contacted Nelson Minor Baseball immediately to investigate.
The residents unhappy with the fence have named themselves The Friends of the Toboggan, Queen Elizabeth Park chapter. They've started a Facebook page, a change.org online petition and a hardcopy version which they're currently circulating.
“A representative indicated no problem, they’ll stop fence construction right away,” Innes said. The volunteers involved in the construction said they hope to come up with a solution that can please everyone in the community.
“When I phoned to let them know there were concerns, they had no problem with saying ‘let’s figure it out’. They’re very approachable.”
He said the city is going to arrange a meeting to discuss the concerns.
“I’m going to get my parks manager, and we’ll work with everybody to find a solution."