The Iola school board wants to see if there’s any chance to improve baseball and softball fields at Riverside Park before looking to build elsewhere.
It’s a tall order that would require a solution to a decades-long flooding problem.
The school district is one of several entities — with the City of Iola, Allen Community College and a citizens group — researching options for new baseball and softball fields.
USD 257 uses fields at Riverside Park, which is prone to flooding because of its location near the Neosho River. Levees built around the park have essentially created a sort of “bowl” that holds water whenever the river rises too high, which has happened multiple times in recent years.
Iola High School’s baseball team was unable to play a single home game there in 2022 because of consistently wet fields.
Dan Willis, school board member, represents the district as part of the focus group. The district asked Mammoth Sports Construction of Meriden to look at a couple of potential sites to build new fields.
School and community leaders also hope to use a durable turf on whatever field is built or renovated.
One site, offered by the City of Iola, would require significant bulldozing and dirt work, and likely isn’t feasible, Willis reported to the school board on Monday.
Another entity, which Willis did not identify, also has offered a potential site. He did not discuss details about that site or offer.
However, Willis said, Mammoth’s representative said they should study Riverside Park to see if it might be possible to improve and keep the fields. The park already has all the necessary infrastructure and has been used for recreation for decades.
“‘Community enhancement’ is the phrase he kept using,” Willis recalled of the meeting. “Mammoth does turf improvements in a lot of flood zones. It’s not as uncommon as we thought.”
Iola City Administrator Matt Rehder and Assistant Administrator Corey Schninstock, though, said the flooding issue is a difficult problem to solve. Discussions with the school district and other entities are “still in the infant stages,” Rehder said.
“We have to check the viability of getting turf on that site. It’s early in the process of figuring out what can and can’t be done, and how we work together to make it happen if it can,” he said.
Schinstock added: “There’s not a lot we can do because we’re so close to the river. Once the water comes up against the backside of the levee, there’s no more room for it and flooding happens.”
If improvements at Riverside Park are possible, there’s still the matter of figuring out how much it might cost and who will pay for it. Willis said one option would be for the district to lease two fields and make improvements. One of those fields, No. 3, is only used by the district for baseball games. The other, No. 2, is used by both the district and the city for numerous sports activities.
