Parks board OKs softball league's request for use of Twin Lakes field

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Wednesday afternoon the Nevada Parks Board voted to approve letting a new men's softball league play on Wednesdays at Twin Lakes starting on Sept. 6.

"We are asking for permission for this league to use the fields at Twin Lakes," Ernie Leftwich, league president, told the parks board Wednesday afternoon.

"We understand that we are to pay the city 20 percent of the teams' entry fees as well as pay $10 per hour for the lights," Leftwich said.

He said that they had advertised the league in the newspaper, on the radio and on channel 3.

"We put this together real quick," he said.

Currently the league has eight teams, each paying a $200 entry fee.

"We already mow the fields for soccer so the only thing we will need to do is to take down the soccer goals on Wednesday morning and will not need to put them back up until Tuesday for that day's soccer games," Robin McHugh, recreation director, told the park board.

"They have agreed to abide by the parks and recreation rules and they will have one of their board members there at all times," she said.

"I think it's a win-win situation for all of us," McHugh said.

"We are treating this as a park and recreation program, but they are running it as supervisors, so it will be under our insurance," she told the board.

Parks board member Jeff Post said that if the league had furnished their own insurance to meet city requirements it would have increased the cost per team to $300 or $400.

"Eventually, we want to try to have co-ed leagues and two divisions," T.J. Raney, league vice president, said.

In other business, the board re-elected Larry Bradley as president and Will Bishop as vice president, for the coming year.

The board also set up a sub-committee of Nora Quitno, Jeff Post and Jim Novak, to look at what is needed to develop usage agreements for all of the park facilities.

"We need to have different agreements for not-for-profit organizations and for-profit organizations," Post said.

"We need to give not-for-profits a break," he said.

"This is something the council wants us to look at and to not play favorites to any organization," McHugh said.