Alfred Dingler is a man with a dream. Dingler’s passion for Little League baseball led him to the Fayette County Commission Oct. 3 with hopes the commissioners could help him turn his dream into reality.

Dingler said he believes that he can bring the Little League World Series title home to Fayette County, but first he needs the county’s facilities improved. Dingler’s idea for a facilities upgrade starts in Brooks.

“I believe turning the old fire station into an indoor training facility and using the adjoining baseball fields in Brooks as an outdoor training field will be the catalyst toward the dream,” he told the board in a lengthy letter.

Currently, the county uses the fire station as a storage facility for county records, but Dingler said the facility could serve a better use.

He suggested his dream could be obtained two different ways. First, the county could sell the facility to him at a fair market value and he would operate the facility, or the county would keep ownership of the building and enter into a partnership with Dingler to run the facility.

Dingler said the location of the fire station next to the baseball fields presents an ideal location for an indoor facility and would provide a great opportunity for kids on the south side of the county to utilize the indoor facility.

But County Administrator Jack Krakeel said the county has no other location to store the records that are housed at the fire station. The fire station is not a perfect location for the records, he added, because of the distance and no climate control. But, he said, it’s the best the county can do at the moment.

Recreation Director Anita Godbee said she had already been approached by someone else who wanted to run an indoor facility at one of the county’s recreation complexes.

The county suggested that Dingler meet with the county’s recreation committee to help find a solution to the problem.

In other news, the County Commission heard a report from Steve Vaughn of Government Employee Benefits Corporation of Georgia about the county’s discussion of going to a defined benefits package.

“Governments are not abandoning defined benefits,” he said. The majority of county governments in Georgia offer a defined benefits package and Vaughn said the main benefit is for long-term and older employees.

Vaughn said the county can also craft the package in a variety of different ways, including having the employees contribute to the plan.

The board asked Vaughn to come up with a proposal that could be brought back before the board for further discussion at the Nov. 7 workshop.