By Rupert Howell
An upcoming state and north half girl’s softball tournament in Batesville hosted by North Delta School has city alderman Teddy Morrow pushing fellow board members to move forward with plans to improve city owned Trussell Park before the October event.

Morrow explained the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools sponsored event would include dozens of teams and hundreds of outsiders for two weekends in a row during the fall.
Morrow knows a thing or two about girl’s softball as he has three daughters who play. He has also helped coach along the way  not to mention the hundreds of games and tournaments he and his wife have attended.

A playing field in good shape and nice, clean restrooms are main ingredients to hosting a good girl’s tournament Morrow noted and later stated, “With $125,000, we could really do a lot out there.”

An earlier proposal had improvements as high $300,000 but Morrow explained, “We don’t want to build the Taj Mahal out there.”

Morrow said putting irrigation systems on all fields should begin soon to take advantage of weather and ball season schedules.

He was instructed to have two quotes available for irrigation systems for the board’s next meeting and to meet with City Engineer Blake Mendropp concerning plans to redo restroom and concession stand facilities.

The City of Batesville stands to gain additional sales and tourism taxes from ball tournaments, especially those requiring competitors to stay overnight, as it receives a three percent tax on food and lodging, not to mention the additional amount of sales tax from other purchases.