Hughson repairs baseball fields after disking them due to COVID-19. What it will do instead

City of Hughson staff repaired baseball fields they disked, Mayor Jeramy Young said, and are planning other ways to prevent activities prohibited by state public health orders.

Staff spent a few hours Monday smoothing out the LeBright and Rolland Starn Park facilities with a tractor, effectively reversing last week’s measure to repel traveling team tournaments during the coronavirus pandemic.

While Young has asked Hughson Youth Baseball leaders for their input, he said hiring private security for the fields on weekends is a possibility. Instead of requesting police services to enforce health orders, he said, security guards could prevent large gatherings, tournament play and other violations.

“I think private security is more equipped to deal with the educational part and hopefully educate the teams or coaches as soon as they arrive,” Young said. “So (that way) we’re not faced with the situation where we have a big baseball game going and we have to come out in the middle of the game and try to stop it.”

Ensuring local coaches are aware of restrictions can also help the city keep the facilities open for youth baseball practices and games among people living in the same household, Young said. Current state public health orders allow youth sports conditioning and “individual skill-building drills,” but not games “within the team or with outside teams.”

Young said he heard a complaint regarding traveling baseball team tournaments for the first time on June 27, after the city manger called. City staff made the operational decision to disk the fields last week, he said, noting he found out about it through Facebook on Friday. The lack of fences around the fields and a warning from the governor that cities must enforce coronavirus orders limited staff’s options, he said.

“We definitely didn’t want law enforcement involved and they were trying to find a way to prevent these large tournaments without having to dedicate a large amount of staff to try to take care of it,” Young said. “I think their heart was in the right place. They were trying to do the right thing; it just didn’t turn out as well as it could have.”

Hughson Youth Baseball did not respond to requests for comment. The organization canceled its baseball and softball season back in May and was not involved in the travel games that prompted the disking. Fredy Alvarez, a board member for Hughson Youth Baseball, commended the repairs in a response to Young’s Facebook post Monday.

“Thank you Jeramy Young for your leadership and quick work to repair the fields,” Alvarez wrote. “This really shows that you truly care about Hughson and its residents!”

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