Families have grown up playing softball on The Westmoreland baseball fields for about 40 years, but feet away from home plate stands a wastewater treatment plant and the mayor has made it his mission to remove it.
The smell is what has been grabbing the attention of the community lately.
Earlier this month, a block in a pipe caused wastewater to spill out from part of the facility. It caused the system to be shut down for some time.
Andy Leath coaches the little leaguers. He remembers playing on the field as a kid.
"You get used to it I suppose. It's been here for about 30 or 35 years maybe more but you get used to it. It's obviously an aged plant and it needs a lot of upgrades," he said.
Mayor Jerry Kirkman worries about the safety of the kids.
"My kids played at that park, my grand-kids will play at the park. I just want a better park and system for our kids to be in, Kirkman said.
Kirkman plans to have a facility built half a mile away. Even if the city had to move the ball fields, he said the state is mandating the city to have a new sewer system. Kirkman knows how important the ballpark is to the community.
"About 600 people on a given day are out there, couple of thousand are probably through the weekend at different times. The nearest field to here would probably be about 15 miles away,"
After receiving the deed for the land where the new $2.9 million facility will be, the community could see construction beginning on the new facility sometime next year.
"This has been going on for about 40 years so if they can hold out for another year or two years were doing everything we can to get the new plant started," Kirkman said.
The next step for the city is to get the project funded.
