Blountville Little League looking for new home as park gets demolished

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A local little league may not have a place to play for now after Sullivan County decided to turn a ball field into a packing facility for recyclables.

On June 30, Blountville Little League was informed it would no longer have access to Bernie Webb Park near Blountville, where the league was planning to have fall ball this year.

Demolition of the park is already underway. It will be replaced by a packaging facility for recycling. It will pack recyclables like cardboard, plastic and aluminum.

“The whole process will be inside a metal building and we have the packer purchased for about a year and a half, and we need a place to put it, and centralized in the county was the best place logistically,” County Mayor Richard Venable said.

The facility will not recycle tires. Mayor Venable says that was misconstrued on social media.

New fields will be built behind the former Blountville Middle and Elementary schools but they will not be done in time.

“Blountville Little League has been a part of the fabric of the community for over 70 years and on this spot in particular, almost 50 years,” League information officer Bryan Horne said. “So I think it’s a very important, vital part of the community to have the children a place to play ball and to go through the program and the organization like Little League.”

Venable says the new location for little league behind the former Blountville Middle and Elementary schools will be better equipped.

“We’ll have state-of-the-art fields here for those little leaguers and there’s usually, there’s plenty of nice, level parking, plenty of access here,” Venable said. “And we just thought it was a win-win for the community. Will drive economic development quite honestly to have them here and so much more accessible than the fields at County Home Road.”

A contractor has not been selected yet for the project. The mayor says the county spoke with the old little league directors, and at the time didn’t know about the new plans to have fall ball.

“So we’ve already got to start planning for next season,” said David Ewing, president of Blountville Little League. “And we have four fields here behind me and in front. And during the season we have all four of those fields running simultaneously six days a week.”

“Can we coexist with the construction team here? You know, use partial fields if possible, if that’s in the cards. We’ve asked for exclusive rights to the fields that are over at the middle school where the new facility is being developed simply because we have 22 teams.”

Ewing has been president of the league for six months and says he wished there was better communication and scheduling about when demolition would start. He says the mayor is helping with finding spaces in the meantime.

“We’re looking at some of the elementary and middle schools in the area, parks, churches, and really we’re reaching out to all of our community and who knows somebody that might have a field,” Ewing said.

Ewing says they are excited for the new fields but the loss of the Bernie Webb fields is emotional for many.

“The closing ceremony that was held here a couple of weeks ago, this place was packed with kids and parents and they were all, you know, running around playing,” Horne said. “It’s very exciting to see that the level of excitement and enthusiasm that has come about this year, has been great for the program.”

Three of their teams competed in the Little League District 5 All-Stars this year. Horne says that adds to the excitement of the program.

League directors say they are afraid of losing revenue if a location is not found soon enough.

“If we don’t have concessions, you know, to be able to sell a hot dog and soda to the kids, we’ll go bankrupt,” Ewing said.

Venable says the packing facility for recyclables will be completed around this time next year, but isn’t sure if the new fields will be done by next spring.

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