Several interested parties in Great Bend have been very vocal in their support of installing turf on the baseball and softball fields at the Great Bend Sports Complex.

Mayor Joe Andrasek recently formed a committee that will meet to study the possibility of that taking place in the future. That committee will include new Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis.

Kendal Francis Audio

Francis says some of those other concerns include the light poles on the ball fields at Veterans Park. The steel poles are roughly 50 years old and one collapsed during a storm in 2016.

Kendal Francis Audio

Francis says the committee that was formed to study the feasibility of turf at the Sports Complex will begin meeting soon. It will include council members Jolene Biggs and Cory Urban, City Administrator Kendal Francis, Public Lands Director Scott Keeler, USD 428 Superintendent Khris Thexton, USD 428 Director of Maintenance Cody Schmidt, and citizen Shawn Behr.

It had been reported that the city transferred $1.3 million into a fund for the possibility of installing turf at the fields but Francis says that isn’t the case. There is a fund that contains around $500,000 but he says that money can be used for any improvement project, not just turf at the Sports Complex.