DAPHNE, Ala. — The City Council Thursday discussed two options on allocating funds for baseball and soccer fields on 124 acres behind the Daphne Wal-Mart that the Baldwin County Board of Education leased to the city.

Ed Nelson and Kit Smith, two of the city’s Recreation Board members, said option one — an asphalt parking lot — will cost just more than $2 million. A second, two-phase option comes in at $1.4 million.

The latter alternative includes laying an aggregate mixture of gravel and sand that would serve as a temporary parking solution, and then adding asphalt over the base.

The council seemed intent on getting this facility built and agreed that laying down asphalt at a later date—to help stretch the budget—was the better idea.

“The challenge is that we have a little over $700,000 in the recreation reserve fund,” Councilman August Palumbo said, later indicating that the city’s expanding programs require the addition. “We now have 550 soccer players and 200 football players.”

Youth league athletes are currently playing on local high school and middle school fields, according to city leaders, who said the children often must wait until the schools’ teams are done practicing before they can take the field. Sometimes, this involves playing until late on school nights. Developing the new recreation park would allow for the young athletes to play at their own convenience.

“Who knows? They may even get better grades,” Councilman John Lake said.

Regardless of which development option the city chooses, one thing seems certain: the city must shoulder the financial burden.

“The state cut funding to Baldwin County (public schools) by $12.5 million; they’ve lost teachers,” Palumbo said.

“I think they’ve (already) been pretty generous,” he said of the school system’s lease, which reportedly was very inexpensive. “We’ve got to come up with $720,000 to complete this project.”

The project purportedly has taken a frugal turn.

“We cut out the lights,” Smith said, indicating that the development apparently will have no exterior lighting, and kids must use the facilities during daylight hours. “That’s $375,000. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.

“Parking on the grass isn’t the way to save money.”

When discussing laying pavement base, Smith shared that his truck got stuck in the grass after heavy rains earlier in the week. He expressed his concern over parents’ cars possibly suffering the same fate if the parking issue is overlooked.

Despite Palumbo’s belief that the school board had helped enough with the project, Lake questioned whether the city should ask for further assistance.

“This is going to be a facility that will help the school system,” he said. “Being the second most obese state, we should be working with the school system.

“Maybe (the school) will throw in some money since it will benefit them”, he added. “Regardless of the fact that they gave us the property for 99 years. The worst thing they can say is ‘no.’”

The first thing, of course, is deciding which option to take, and city leaders had their own ideas of the matter.

“I think we need to go ahead and do it,” Lake said, referring to the less expensive, second option.

“I have no problem doing something because we’re the city and we can,” Councilman Ron Scott said. “We have to stop acting like a business. To me, if option one is what we have to do … I don’t see how we can do anything differently.”

“We’re going to have to make some hard decisions,” Scott said. “Should we keep the $8.3 million (in the general fund) or free up some of it to fund the paving? What does the city need right now?”

Apparently, it needs more recreation property, according to Palumbo.

“We’re in a crisis with recreation in Baldwin County,” Palumbo said. “We’re begging, borrowing, and stealing places for our kids to play on. As our city grows…this is part of the infrastructure.”