I have to respond to the free speech letter about the closing of the bathrooms at Fayette County Baseball fields to correct the facts. The Fayette County Baseball Board is a group of volunteers who give up three Saturdays for sign-ups, two Saturdays for training, two Saturdays for try-outs and drafts, eight Saturdays, and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for game play.

Throw in three to five hours every week for other duties such as phone calls, manager/coach meetings, equipment/field repairs, and the basic running of the association. Oh, and time for our children’s games and practices.

And that’s just for the spring; we start again in the fall.

The Fayette County Baseball Association Board of Directors decided to close the bathrooms located at the concession stands as a board because of repeated vandalism. This was not done by the president as suggested, but by every one involved on the board who was aware of this ongoing problem.

As a matter of fact, the president is the one who has postponed this action from the past three years until now. This action has been coming for the last three years, after the county refurbished these bathrooms. They were cleaned every day only to be trashed by unattended children, or disgruntled parents/players. We have never been able to catch the criminals doing the vandalism.

Fayette County has provided a fully operating bathroom with running water located in the building between fields #4 and field #8. These are maintained by the county and this is funded by your tax money. FCBA decided to add the porta-potties at our cost to provide additional locations for your convenience.

The board is provided with colored shirts and jackets so you can find us if needed for ice, emergencies, complaints, rules interruption, etc. We are there one to two hours before the games start and are there until the last game ends. On Saturdays, that’s 8:30 a.m to sometimes 8 p.m. During the week we are there some nights until 11 p.m, so we do have jackets for cool nights. These are provided by a member who has their own business with almost no cost to the board.

If you are so concerned with the money usage, you are free to show up and help Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (Wednesdays if we have any rain-outs) during the season. You can attend the board meetings and give up another two to three hours for meeting time. We can always use help in picking up trash after every game or cleaning the bathrooms, or cleaning out the press boxes, or repairing the playing fields. We can use your help with all the manager meetings and training required every season or helping all week with pictures.

We are all volunteers and receive no payment but the fact that knowing your child has one of the best and safest parks in Georgia to play in.

I have been in the FCBA for 15 years with two boys playing baseball, and on the board for seven years. No one has worked harder and put in more time than our FCBA president and I for one will regret the day he does retire from the board. Fayette County and the Baseball Association will lose a very valuable member that day.

Kenneth Jackson, parent, coach, manager, and vice-president
Fayette County Baseball Board of Director
Fayetteville, Ga.

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