Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009

County buys baseball field for fire station

The emphasis at Chapin's Boundary Field soon will shift from baseballs to emergency calls.

The Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission has approved selling the 4.1-acre field to Lexington County for $225,000, and the county hopes to move the Chapin Fire Station to that site.

Those involved say the deal makes sense for both sides.

The baseball field was difficult to maintain and supervise because it was miles from the recreation agency's nearest staffed park. Simply to mow the grass, staff members had to load equipment on a trailer and drive from Crooked Creek Park, said executive director Elizabeth Taylor.

There also were concerns about Chapin High School students parking on the field, creating traffic problems immediately before and after school. The field is on East Boundary Street, across from the Generations of Chapin retirement community.

The county's fire service had outgrown its Chapin station, which is on land owned by the city of Chapin, according to Bruce Rucker, director of public safety for the county.

In recent years, the fire service has had to park some of its equipment on property across the street because it had run out of room in the station. A new, three-bay station planned on Boundary Road would solve those problems, Rucker said.

The sale is on hold while the county does an environmental study of the property. The timetable for starting construction of a new station will be determined after the purchase is complete.

While both the fire service and the recreation agency get tax money, the recreation is a special purpose district with separate budgeting. Much of its operational expenses are paid by user fees. The proceeds from the land sale will go toward capital improvements, not to operational expenses, Taylor said.

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