New Louise softball field almost ready
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Brenda Sommer Almost Done Fencing was going up on the backstop of the new Louise ISD softball field this week. Members of the community stepped up with donations and free labor to create the facility at a rock-bottom cost.

It looks like the work and contributions of volunteers shaved at least $90,000 off the cost of a new softball field for Louise students.

The Louise community stepped up to the plate to create a softball field for its high school girls, going from bare land to green sod and red dirt in only a few weeks earlier this year.

Knowing the district lacked the estimated $125,000 it would need to construct the field, residents come forward with offers of materials, equipment and labor before being asked to do so.

LISD bought 12.6 acres in 2006 to build the field and expand other facilities, but after voters turned down a higher tax amount in a rollback election Nov. 6, trustees decided to emphasize academics as they whittled their budget down.

In November, trustees agreed to let Superintendent Andy Peters spend part or all of the $22,000 already in the district's budget for new construction to buy bits and pieces not donated, but needed to get a practice field built.

The district had quotes ranging from $125,000 to $200,000 for professionals to do the work, but Peters and board members noted the current LISD baseball field was built with community efforts and very little in district funds.

Monday, Peters told trustees the district had received $1,500 in cash donations, $800 from selling scrap metal and has been promised a $5,000 scoreboard from First State Bank of Louise.

Peters so far had spent $20,900 for items not donated or purchased at substantial discounts from community businesses.

He asked trustees for an additional $15,000, which he said is all that is needed to complete the field, and said there was money remaining in the budget that had been set aside to build the district's new fitness center. That project came in $19,000 under budget.

Trustees agreed unanimously to allow use of those funds, with board member Pam Johnson absent.

The board voted in early 2006 to add a softball program for girls, to ensure them the same number of opportunities as boys to participate in sports, which is required by federal law commonly called Title IX. Later that year, the board bought the acreage adjacent to the current campus to build a softball field and for other growth.

The softball program began during the last school year, and the team practiced on the football field and played its home games in El Campo.