ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / December 18, 1999

LAPLACE – Young baseball players in St. John the Baptist Parish will beable to play at night starting next April, thanks to the action of the Parish Council on Tuesday night.

Despite some arguments against the move, the council voted to accept the lowest bid to install lighting at the Regala Park baseball diamonds located next to the Louisiana Technical College on West Airline Highway in Reserve.

Accepting the bid of West Bank Electric Co. for the job seemed to be adone deal, then at the finance committee meeting before the regular Parish Council meeting Dennis Murphy, LTC director, asked if the school could purchase 16.5 acres of land, part of which contains Regala Park.Murphy said the school is growing very fast and will need the land next to the school for buildings, labs and parking lots. He said staterepresentatives and senators have put together a package of bonds to purchase the land, and all they need is the OK of the Parish Council.

Chief Administrative Officer Pat McTopy said the parish would have to have to get an appraisal of the land before the council could vote on the matter.

The finance committee, consisting of Duaine Duffy, Perry Bailey, Ranny Wilson, Steve Thornton and Nickie Monica, voted to get the land appraised and support the expansion of the school.

However, at the regular council meeting, when the vote for accepting the lighting bid came up, Joel McTopy said he didn’t know if the parish should sell the land to the school. He was afraid the parish would be selling theland at below the appraised rate.

The offer by the school to buy the land came as a surprise to several council members. Dale Wolfe said he wanted to hear more about theproposal, but Murphy had not stayed for the council meeting.

“This man has disrespected us,” said an angry Wolfe.”I move we vote forthe lights.”The vice-president of the recreation board, Ed Morrison, was upset the council would even think about not buying lights for the baseball fields.

“This is a slap in the face to the kids and the recreation department,” said an emotional Morrison. “This is important to the kids. Recreation alwaysgets left out.”Carl Steadman, a baseball coach at Regala Park, echoed Morrison, “We need those lights to play at night.”Steadman told the council that because there is a tournament played out there, all the diamonds needed to be lighted by April.

Wilson said to vote for the lights then sell the land and tear down the lights would be a waste of tax money.

“I’m not in favor of wasting money,” said Wilson. “Let’s find out if we cansell the land. Another month won’t hurt us.”Kevin Duhon countered Wilson’s claim of wasted money.

“The school can use the lighting for parking,” said Duhon.

Duffy tried to smooth out the troubled waters.

“There is plenty of land out there,” Duffy said. “We also have the money inthe budget for the lights. We also have to think about the technicalschool’s expansion, too.”The bid by West Bank Electric Co. was $27,200. Parish engineer C. J.Savoie said he would need another $2,000 to bring power out to the park.

In the end the council voted to put in the lighting by a vote of 6-3. Wilson,Thornton and Duffy voting against the motion.

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