Carson Valley Girls Softball association constructing batting cages

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. " The Carson Valley Girls' Softball Association is in the process of building batting cages at Stodick Park.

The league began planning to contruct the cages more than three years ago and hopes to have them completed by the time the season starts later this month.

"It just seemed like every year we'd run into something that would hold us up," association president Neil Hill said. "Finally this year we were able to get it together. The parks and recreation department agreed on everything and they were very cooperative in giving us space, moving sprinklers, things like that."

The cost for the project is expected to come in between $22,000 to $25,000.

"This has been pretty much the big deal for us the past few years," Hill said. "We came up with the funding ourselves, got a nice break in materials cost from Bing Materials and finally we went forward with it.

There will be four cages, each measuring 14 feet wide by 60 feet long. The netting enclosure will extend 12 feet high and eventually, Hill said the league hopes to drop netting off the side of the cages for soft toss.

"It's going to look very nice, we're excited about the whole project."

Board member John Fent has been overseeing the construction of the cages.

While the cages will be designated for primary use by the league, Hill said the plan for now is to leave the cages unlocked during daylight hours for public use.

"It's a public park," Hill said. "If someone goes over there during the day time, they should be able to use the cages. If vandalism or misuse starts to be a problem though, we can still padlock it. That's only if we start having problems."

Hill also said the netting will be removed and put into storage for the winter months.

He said the eventual goal is for the league to buy new pitching machines for use during field practice and move the league's old pitching machines into the cages.

"We are also hoping to build a storage shed in each cage to lock up the pitching machines," he said.

Anyone interested in donating to the project can contact board member Patti Snyder at 265-6447.