Ceres Youth Baseball officials are unhappy with the lighting conditions on all four fields at George Costa Baseball Complex now that new lights have been installed. The city is now offering a remedy of cutting down 32 mature trees around the perimeter of the complex which are interfering with the light source.
City Manager Doug Dunford said that the council is poised next week to give its consent to cutting down the trees before the start of the March 28 opening day of Ceres Youth Baseball.
He said that in time the city may consider planting replacement trees farther away from the fields so as to not block lights aimed at the fields.
Jorge Guerrero with Ceres Youth Baseball said his group only wanted lighting on Field 3 remedied but the city installed new lighting on all four fields instead.
“The other three fields were not bad,” said Guererro. “The other three fields were in good condition. They had good lights. And now they’re bad.”
Guerrero said the angle of the new lighting is wrong and sometimes blinding for players searching the skies for the ball. He called it a safety issue.
“When you hire somebody to do remodeling in your house, you expect it to be better, not to be the same or worse than it was,” Guerrero told the City Council last week. “And unfortunately, with the all the money that the city and TID invested on this, those fields are not better. Those fields are worse. There are three fields that are completely worse than they were before.
“Some areas are really bright, but there are some areas that are really dark in some areas where the kids are getting glare in their eyes. They’re getting blinded. They have to turn away.”
Ismael Ontiveras, the vice president of CYB, said it’s the intensity of the LED lighting which is blinding players.
“I’ve had several incidents, specifically, one with my third baseman who almost got hit in the face because he literally turned at the last second when the light was right in his face,” said Ontiveras. “So we’re concerned.”
In August the Ceres City Council approved receiving a $69,546 grant from the Turlock Irrigation District to go towards the cost of the $178,708 contract with Access Electric, Inc. The old Metal Halide technology lighting was replaced with more energy efficient LED fixtures. The upgrade is expected to reduce energy usage and ongoing maintenance costs.
