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Portion Of Ernest Ward Campus Leased To Northwest Escambia For Ball Field Expansion
February 14, 2011
A portion of the Ernest Ward Middle School property in Walnut Hill is being leased to Northwest Escambia Little League to expand with new practice fields.
The Escambia County School District has leased about 4.5 additional acres to NWE for four new ball practice fields for $1 per year on a 20 year lease. According to NWE officials, the ball fields will be constructed and maintained by volunteers or at NWE’s expense.
The school district owns 90 acres around Ernest Ward, including the current school campus, the NWE’s current Bradberry Park, about 20 acres of farmland and several acres of wooded land (see map above). A portion of the property was already leased to NWE for Bradberry Park, a portion to a communications company for a cellular tower and 19.25 acres to Bama Bottom Farms, LLC.
Brett Ward of Bama Bottom Farms property agreed to forgo 2.75 acres of his parcel, which he leases at $65 per acre, for the ball fields. An additional 1.73 acres for the ball fields is located to the west of the Walnut Hill Ruritan Club community center, behind the district’s bus garage. The 1.73 acres currently includes the old “hog barn” that was used by Ernest Ward High School. (The areas being leased to NWE are shown in yellow in the map.)
NWE’s lease on the Ernest Ward property will be for 20 years, with the option to extend for two additional 10 year terms.
Pictured below and inset: This area around the old Ernest Ward High School “hog barn” and part of the field below are on the current Ernest Ward Middle School property and have been leased to Northwest Escambia Little League for four ball practice fields. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
5 Responses to “Portion Of Ernest Ward Campus Leased To Northwest Escambia For Ball Field Expansion”
The 1.75 acre parcel may be close the site of the lost Civil War cemetary that Willaim wrote about in an article for Williams Station Day in 2009.
This has been needed for a long time. It is not god to have small kids on the big field when the older kids are practicing. Thanks to the school board for this it was getting to be a safety concern with so many people sharing practice fields
Please note that there at over 200 kids practicing on 3 fields; you do not see that in this picture… Our kids deserve the opportunity to have enough room to learn the fundamentals of baseball and softball, Thank you for the land.
notice there are twelve buses parked at the bus garage in this picture
it gives a rough idea of the scale involved. I forget how many buses (less than 25, isn’t it?) we have, but some can be parked at Bratt, some at Northview.
(If all else fails, I guess we can park on the football field. Eight feet wide, give them 4 feet between buses makes 12 feet, times 25 should take 300 feet. YES! The football field could handle the load. It might even make any games more interesting, too.)
David who’d rather park in Bluff Springs
Why are they leasing out the acreage behind the bus garage? They could really use that for compounding the buses over the summer and during the school year. Starting this school year drivers that live within 2 miles of their compound schools are suppose to compound their buses. Next year it goes to 6 miles and then 2012-2013 school year ALL buses are to be compounded. The Walnut Hill bus garage doesn’t have the room to compound all the buses and driver’s vehicles. We also have schools that don’t have the room to compound the buses and vehicles.
The district is not being very smart.
I don’t begrudge the ball park their space. i think it great that they are able to provide the children with activities, but the district could solve a big problem with some of the space.