With the start of school and sports getting underway again, one resident was concerned about the batting cage at McDonald Stadium.
Larry McKnown addressed the El Dorado City Commission during their last meeting. He said he was a big baseball fan and advocate of baseball.
He said his son played baseball at El Dorado High School last season and they did not have a batting cage at McDonald Stadium.
“Money was supposed to be in place for it in February,” he said. “We were told it would be ready by the start of the season. The batting cage is still not up at McDonald Stadium. A batting cage is very important for baseball.”
He asked what the status of this was.
Herb Llewellyn, city manager, said there has been and is normally one of three batting cages that the city owns at McDonald Stadium. There also is one just to the east of McDonald Stadium, one in East Park and the high school has a couple.
He said he had never heard the story about the money for it.
“All of the expenses associated with rebuilding the batting cage has been born by the city of El Dorado,” he said.
He said there had been a dirt batting cage that had treated lumber with a thin edge of metal around it, but it got blown over in a storm.
“When we decided to rebuild it, we decided to make it a more permanent thing,” Llewellyn continued. “It is all concrete with turf on it. It’s under construction and has been under construction.”
He said the retaining wall was on schedule to be finished last week and they have the turf for it as well.
“It’s just moving ahead,” he said.
“It’s been a lengthy amount of time,” McKnown said.
