By GARY PINNELL

SEBRING — The first pitch at the Highlands County Sports Complex will be thrown in August instead of April, and the project will be over budget, Parks and Recreation Director Vicki Pontius disclosed Wednesday.

The adult softball park at 100 Sheriff’s Tower Road is four months behind schedule, but Pontius said a committee is still formulating budgets, and she could not share how much more the estimated $2.7 million complex will cost taxpayers.

Construction is going well, complex manager Rocky Ellingsworth said, but agronomist Dan Morgan of Lithia, Fla., determined the fields ought to be planted in the spring – the growing season – not the fall.

“The agronomist is working with us to help develop the turf specs,” Pontius said. “The plan is to sprig Tifway 419 Bermuda grass in late March or early April. It will be ready Aug. 1.”

Ground was broken on the complex late in 2005. Originally, they planned to open with the National Invitational Tournament, April 11-13. Ellingsworth was quoted in a 2006 story saying the complex might be finished as early as February or March, 2007.

“If we don’t throw a pitch before April 13, we’re definitely throwing our first pitch that night,” Ellingsworth said then.

On Wednesday, Ellingsworth said he notified the National Softball Association, Nicholasville, KY, that the tournament will be canceled. However, he said, a new tournament has been scheduled in August.

John Lynch, the Florida tournament coordinator, and Hugh Cantrell, president of the National Softball Association, confirmed.

“That tournament is important to us, but we did find another location,” Cantrell said. “I think it will be in Naples. As soon as the field is ready, we’re planning on using it for another NSA tournament.”

Construction Progress
Tifway Bermuda grass, developed in 1960, is greener and slightly coarser than other varieties. The dense turf roots more quickly, spreads more rapidly, and needs less fertilizer than other Bermuda.

“It is also more player friendly, more durable,” said Ellingsworth. “It gets brown less quickly, and requires less maintenance.”

Ellingsworth said he was “biting at the bit” to plant the fields in grass in September, but the agronomist disagreed.

“I was very optimistic we were going to have it in April,” Ellingsworth said. “But you know how it is when your eyes are bigger than your stomach.”

“We didn’t want to play on clay dirt, and then have to fight for the next 10 years to get us to where we want to be,” Ellingsworth said.

Ellingsworth expects the sports complex to be an economic boon to the county.

The softball fields are expected to bring in revenues, but Pontius still expects the complex to cost about $50,000 a year in taxpayer money. The complex will be paid for with a one-penny sales tax.

“In the 10 years I’ve been involved now,” Pontius said, “that has always surfaced as the number one priority. There is no place for adults to play ball.”

In addition to five adult softball fields, there will be two soccer fields, two youth football fields, and enough leftover green space in the former 52-acre orange grove to take future requests, Pontius said.

The two-story, 10-sided concession stand, office and press box will be structurally finished in February.

“The first floor is complete, the structural steel is in place to stabilize the second-floor slab, and in February we will be doing the roof,” Pontius said.

The maintenance building is also going up, and the irrigation system is 80 percent complete, she said.

When finished, the complex will have 1,200 yards of concrete, including the apron around the concession stand and sidewalks around the fields – which are arranged around each other in a five-point star pattern.

Smoking Allowed
By state law, smoking will be allowed at the new Highlands County Sports Complex. Why? Because the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act gives responsibility for both indoor and outdoor smoking to the state; local laws cannot supersede the state.

Suggestions to regulate smoking at the Max Long youth baseball complex have already failed. City of Sebring officials said they were unsure how they could enforce a no-smoking ban.

Even so, Ellingsworth wants to know how Clearwater enforces no smoking.

“They have a lady – they actually call her the Smoke Nazi – and you can’t smoke at Clearwater fields,” Ellingsworth said. He hopes to place a smoking area beyond the bleachers.