Pitt County Schools is taking steps to quite literally level the playing field for Farmville Central High School’s girls softball team.
The school board voted this week to spend $200,000 to make corrections on the field to comply with North Carolina High School Athletic Association standards.
PCS Executive Director of Operations Aaron Errickson told the board that the field, which is located closer to neighboring Farmville Middle School than to the high school, has a significant slope.
According to a description from Coastal Building Solutions, which has been awarded the contract to make the improvements, left field is about 4 feet lower than right field, and home plate is about 4 feet higher than center field and is 18 inches higher than third base. The project will include the installation of erosion control and protection fencing, along with replacement of drainage pipes under the field.
Improvements also call for double bull pen to be installed beside the batting cage and for the score board to be adjusted. But, for now, Errickson said, the school will not be getting the new softball field that had been planned.
In November 2021, PCS spent $40,000 to buy 8 acres next to the school’s football, soccer and track complex. Two acres was to be used to create a softball field for the Jaguars, while the remaining land would be used for practice fields and storage areas for athletics.
The additional field would have allowed Farmville Middle’s games to be played on the field the high school uses and would free a field at the neighboring elementary school to be used for Farmville Parks and Recreation Department programs. The district’s goal was to have the new field to be ready for the 2023 softball season. But bids for constructing the new field came in significantly higher than the $300,000 PCS had budgeted.
“We bid it out several times. The lowest bid came in at the ballpark of $1.2 million to $1.3 million,” Errickson said in an interview. “At that point, we determined to evaluate our other options which included what would it be to improve the existing field.”
Errickson said changes have been made to address concerns about the current field being compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said middle school restrooms are available for softball fans to use during games, and beginning with the 2024-25 school year, bus driver restrooms located near the field will be available for spectator use as well.
Errickson told The Daily Reflector that PCS plans to retain the land it purchased and that a new softball field is still a possibility at a later date.
“There’s a lot that we can do with the land,” he said. “It is always an option that prices will come down to below where they are now.
“When Farmville Central receives an addition in the future, we would do a new field in the back at that time,” he said. “Based on contractor conversations, that would help bring down the cost of that field.”
Meanwhile, the school district plans to use soil from the 2021 8-acre purchase to build up sections of the current softball field.
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