The new Q.V. Sykes baseball complex will not open next week as scheduled. County engineer Neal Carson blamed the recent storms.
"Unfortunately, we've got damage out there. It's fencing, not a lot of fencing, but it's been shifted or needs to be straightened back up," Carson said. "Probably the most expensive thing that's happened is the wind moved all of the lights around. So all of the lighting has to be redirected again."
Carson estimated repairing the new complex would cost more than $100,000. He also told the supervisors both state and federal emergency management people have visited Lauderdale County to inspect the damage.
"They were pleased with our assessments and our estimates," said Carson. "They have now preliminarily okayed us to receive approximately $195,000 for 45 plus little sites of damage. I fully expect us to be declared an emergency soon and will start the actual paper work to justify receiving the money."
District one supervisor Hank Florey told the board he has never seen as much damage in District One.
"Holes in the asphalt. Holes the size of a silver garbage can, just washed out," said Florey. "I talked with old timers in making all of my rounds doing that. I've just never seen water like that."
Carson said now that we've had several days of dry weather, work to repair the damage could begin.
