Columbia council approves $169K for ball field lights near large apartment complexes
Let there be light.
That was the order of Columbia City Council on Jan. 19, as it unanimously approved $169,700 for lighting to be installed at All-Stars Field.
The baseball field, which opened in its current form in September 2019, is located near Lester Drive and West Beltline Bouelvard, behind the North Pointe Estates apartment complex (often commonly referred to as Bethel Bishop) and just up the street from the sprawling Colony apartments.
The coming installation of lights at the ballfield is the latest step in the transformation of what was, just a few years ago, simply a little-used, rough patch of grass nestled between the apartments and a nearby train track. According to Assistant City Manager Henry Simons, the city spent about $325,000 — the lion’s share of which came from a state grant — to build it into a proper baseball field with fencing, dugouts, landscaping and more.
Now it’s time for the next step.
“It has been fully constructed,” Simons said. “The baseball field itself has irrigation. There’s a zip line back there, as well as a walking trail. There’s a pedestrian bridge that connects the community to the ballfield. Now we are in the phase of getting it some lighting. ... We want to make sure our young people have a safe place to play, and that lighting gives them the opportunity.”
Simons said he expects construction will begin on the lights in February.
All-Stars Field is in Columbia City Councilman Ed McDowell’s District 2. He was an early advocate of transforming the ballfield, and is eager for the lights to go up.
“Lighting, of course, is going to provide a real extra for us,” McDowell, a retired minister, told The State. “We’d want to get those lights up to create accessibility back there beyond just during the day.”
It is of note that work continues on a baseball field that is in a predominantly African American neighborhood, as there has been a push in recent years to rekindle Black children’s interest in the national pastime. According to the The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, 8.2% of players on Major League rosters on opening day in 2019 were African American. That was down sharply from 1991, when 18% of MLB players on opening day rosters were Black.
In recent years, Columbia’s parks and recreation department has participated in MLB’s Play Ball and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities initiatives, which encourage children, particularly African Americans, to get involved in the game.
“I’m a big believer in America’s pastime and trying to find many more opportunities to introduce as many of our children as possible to the sport,” third-term Mayor Steve Benjamin told The State. “As we emerge from the pandemic, hopefully this summer we can see our children playing together again in public. ... We are trying to create more safe spaces for our children to recreate, and take care of the one (body) that God gives all of us.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
