Cary to spend $172,500 repairing Baseball Complex - why? (construction, quality of life)

[Beermat]

the 3 year old National Baseball Training complex at Thomas Brooks Park requires emergency repairs costing over $172k and I struggle to understand why these repairs should be funded by the Town of Cary. If it is an unstable slope then surely this is the responsibility of the Designer or Construction company, particularly when only 3 years old. Does Cary get any economic benefit from this massively under used facility? or is it a money pit for the Town with some minor prestiege once in a while? It would be interesting to read peoples views on this matter.


Cary News | Town funds repairs to baseball complex (http://www.carynews.com/2010/06/16/18651/town-funds-repairs-to-baseball.html - broken link)

[geoff2v]

As far as I can tell, the NBT complex is owned and operated by the Town of Cary, which is why Cary is paying for the repairs.

The question of whether Cary *should* own and operate such a facility is a good one, of course, but the answer to the particular question you proposed is pretty straightforward.

[SFspiderman]

The facility generated $2 million in revenue last year. It cost $11 million to build, and there are obviously ongoing operating expenses.

Cary News | Her legacy is Cary's quality of life (http://www.carynews.com/2010/04/13/17179/her-legacy-is-carys-quality-of.html - broken link)

As the original article you cited notes, only $40,000 is going toward stabilizing the slope. The majority of the money is going toward under-field drainage on the three practice fields. Probably should have been done to begin with, but wasn't, so this is a nice upgrade.

And it's not necessarily clear from what I've seen whether the slope slippage was a design flaw/poor construction, which could shift some of the responsibility to those parties, or if it's simply a natural condition which the town simply has to cover. Regardless, the town needs to move forward to meet the necessary timing moving, and I assume they'll try to recover any legitimate costs from other parties if appropriate, although I doubt that will be the case.

The whole facility seems like a reasonable investment for the town, with distinct economic impact and publicity beyond the direct revenues received.

[Sherifftruman]

It sounds to me like they deleted under feild drainage to save some money back in the design phase and it is not biting them in the behind. It is also possible that the design and geotech firms did not adequately understand the soil conditions and maybe should have insisted on underfeild drainage, but did not, but based on the way projects like this goes, I bet they were tight on funds and deleted the drainage, thinking it was a "nice to have" when it was needed.

[Wisertime]

To quote Field of dreams. "If you build it (correctly) they will come."

[dansdrive]

Originally Posted by Wisertime

To quote Field of dreams. "If you build it (correctly) they will come."

Or another way to say it:

If you drain it they will stay!