Fleming Island Field Situation

During my many attempts to get fields for the league I learned quite a bit about the different fields around the area. I moved to Florida back in 1990 down in Palm Beach County. Their Park System is first class and baseball is a large part of all their parks. When I moved here I was surprised to see no existing baseball fields or plans for any.



You might be interested in this information as well. Below is a listing of all the parks that I looked at and their status.


Thunderbolt School

We initially looked here since the YMCA TBall program had moved back over to the Plantation Complex. After talking to the Principal in great detail she made a decision together with Mike Elliott that we could not play there. However, The YMCA is allowed to play at this school, go figure. The fields are not in great shape anyway.



Thumnderbolt Park

This park was something we looked at initially as well. The major obstacle here is that County will not let us schedule games at the park. All we want is the corner by the backstop. However the park is now overrun with LaCrosse and Men's Flag Football leagues that tear up the fields with disregard for the baseball field. I inquired to the National Parks program to ask about any restrictions and this was his response.

Thank you for your inquiry. The property, known as Thunderbolt Park, was
conveyed at no cost to Clay County for public park and public recreation
purposes. Clay County, as the owner of the property, is responsible for
determining the types of public park and recreation uses and the hours of
operation. Whether the County operates the park for organized sports or
for unscheduled games is entirely up to the County. As long as the
property is open for public park and recreational use at reasonable fees
and there is no discrimination, and is handicap accessible, then the County
will be in compliance with the terms contained in the deed that we issued
for the property. Our deed restrictions do not specify that the property
must be open on a first-come, first-served basis, nor for organized play.
Those decisions are always the responsibility of the park and recreation
agency which manages the property.




Armstrong Park

This is a county park that is leased for $1 to the Clay County Adult Softball League. They have 2 90 foot base fields and 1 smaller 60 foot basepath field. All fields have lights. The County pays $500 per month for the light bill. We continue to work with them to get access. They lock the fields and we have not been able to get a key to this date. I know several Commissioners would not agree with locking County Parks. We continue to work with them, I hope to get a big field for 1 night a week so we can support an older program.




Paterson School

Patterson was something we looked at as the other parks began to full through. Terry Jeffers from the County worked with the Principal at Paterson and helped us get the fields for our first year. I hope to continue to have access to these fields in the Fall eventhough we may have to cooperate with Football.




Plantation Complex

This park is leased by the YMCA for $1 from the County. They are required to keep 25% of the park for open play, bet you did not know that one. They also control the keys to this park. This park is pretty filled to its capacity with YMCA events. I asked the Y if they would build a Baseball field but they said they had no room.



Fleming Island School

I talked to the Principal directly early on and although they have 2 fields, they are not in great condition. They have land however to develop a field if we want in the future.



Swimming Pen School

I talked to Terry Jeffers about this school and he contacted the Principal. They had a string of vandalism at the time and they did not want to work with us. I found this to be ironic since it's program like this that give kids something to do. I think we can try again in the future.



Fleming Island High School

I met with the Athletic Director, Randy Warren and he stated we can use the Softball field from Jun to December. This is will be a great field for us. We will need to build a mound on this field but other then that we are all set for this beautiful field.



40 Acres Undeveloped Land

Many people always say, 'If we only had the land'. Well, we do have the land, 40+ acres donated by East West and Centex. The land sits in between Thunderbolt School and Black Creek's Spring Creek Cummunity. The county does not even have this on their radar and with the money crunch Clay is in I don't see it happening for a long time unless we make it happen. If you want to help here let me know.




Small Park Adjacent to 4 Silo Business Park

I just noticed this the other day. It looks like a nice field that we can use for TBall.



Pace Island

I have not looked into this but they do have a Backstop in the back park that would work for TBall.