Bayou La Batre baseball park nears completion

Zirlott Park in Bayou La Batre remains a dirt field, but shiny silver fences now map out three future baseball fields where last year there was a stark gravel lot lined by rows of travel trailers -- emergency shelter for Hurricane Katrina victims.

The city's decades-old youth ballpark was ripped up after the 2005 storm in order to build what federal officials said was the state's only post-Katrina travel trailer park run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency rather than by the proprietors of an already existing recreational vehicle park.

Now after four months of digging up sewer and power lines and trucking in tons of fill dirt, a contractor is expected to finish rebuilding the park and return it to the city by June 7.

"It wasn't ready for the start of baseball this year, but I fully expect it to be ready by football season," said Bayou La Batre Councilman George Ramires, who oversees the city's parks. "And I believe it's going to look a lot nicer than what we had before."

Soon after Hurricane Katrina, the city turned over the three baseball fields and one football field at Zirlott Park to FEMA to provide emergency shelter for storm victims.

In June 2006, after months of complaints from a group of south Mobile County parents that their children needed a place to play ball again, FEMA agreed to rebuild the youth ball fields at the park.

FEMA asked the Corps of Engineers to oversee the park's reconstruction. The corps hired a contractor, Carter's Contracting Services of Andalusia, Ala., which started work in mid-December on the $1.52 million project, said Pat Robbins, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The contractor was given until May 7 to finish the job, but due to rain in January and February, which prevented work at the muddy site, the contract was extended to June 7, Robbins said.

The park will have better drainage, designed by the corps, all its outfields will be covered in sod, and the contractor will install 1,600 linear feet of asphalt sidewalks to make the park wheelchair-accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, city and corps officials said.

The park's football field, where federal officials never located travel trailers but used as an equipment staging area, is already restored and seeded with new grass, Ramires said.

One concerned resident said he is anything but enthusiastic about the ballpark that FEMA is building for the city.

Steve Sprinkle, a local net maker who was among the community members who chipped in to build the park in the early 1970s, said he believes the materials being used at the site are flimsy.

FEMA is replacing concrete bleachers with aluminum bleachers, Sprinkle said. Also, FEMA may not replace the sprinkler system that had irrigated the grass in each outfield, he said.

"That park is going to fall apart six months after they hand it over to the city," Sprinkle said.

Officials with FEMA and the city of Bayou La Batre said that's not true.

"What does Steve mean by concrete bleachers? There were concrete block pillars on each side, and the seats were two 1-by-12 inch wood slats," Ramires said. "I think aluminum bleachers will be an improvement."

But, he said, the jury is still out on the sprinkler system.

Robbins said FEMA has yet to receive requested information from the city about the sprinkler system that existed before the storm. Without that information, the agency can't purchase and install a similar sprinkler system, he said.

Ramires said he didn't know whether the city has any paperwork on the sprinklers.

Mayor Stan Wright said that if FEMA doesn't install sprinklers, the city will.