Protective Netting Installed at West Side Softball Field

Sturgeon Bay – Protective netting is being installed behind a portion of the outfield fence at Sturgeon Bay’s West Side Softball Field to prevent balls from causing damage to vehicles or building windows in the area where the former West Side School is being converted to apartments.

Municipal Services Director Mike Barker said the development agreement that Northpointe Development has with the city requires the developer to install some sort of protective measures to keep balls hit over the left-field fence from going into the parking lot.

Barker said a narrow area of park property is located behind the outfield fence.

“It’s really not a usable space, and I think it would be a good area for poles and such to be erected for that [netting],” he said. “We are asking them to keep it at least six feet away from the fence to allow their mowers back through there.”

The conditions for the netting approved by the Sturgeon Bay Common Council last week included having the developer be responsible for all maintenance for the posts and netting. And, if the protective netting would no longer be required, such as in the event that the softball field is no longer used in the future, the conditions also state that the posts are to be removed at the developer’s expense.

Though the purpose of the netting is to prevent damage from a ball hit over the left-field fence, when asked about a vehicle on the road being damaged by a ball hit over the right-field fence, Barker said he wasn’t sure whether that will fall under the softball league’s insurance.

District 3 Alder Dan Williams said the potential for a home-run ball going over the right-field fence and hitting a vehicle on the road has always been an issue at the West Side Softball Field.