A group of residents again petitioned the Fort Oglethorpe City Council to remove the ball field fence and the cricket pitch at Barnhardt Circle.

Mayor Ronnie Cobb said he’ll continue to research the matter, but he believes the city is within its legal rights to keep the fence and pitch where they are.

“We’re probably not going to put it up for a vote,” Cobb said when asked about the matter on Tuesday after a council meeting the night before. “We’re probably just going to leave it as is.”

Ed Parrish and a slew of supporters say that’s not good enough. Parrish complained to the council last month and others have also objected to the way the circle is used. Parrish contends that the city charter states that “no construction or obstructions of any kind” will be allowed on the property since doing so would violate the terms of the contract the city signed when the Stephenson family sold the land in 1950 to be used for public recreation and education.

“No matter how you rationalize it...(the fence) has another purpose, and that is as a barrier or obstruction to the general public,” Parrish said.

Yet others who attended the council meeting spoke in favor of keeping the fields just the way they are.

Fort Oglethorpe lawyer Steven Moore said he has two children who play on the fields and would like to see the area maintained.

“Somebody needs to get up here and speak for these kids,” he said after three speakers in a row came before the council in protest. “These ball fields are as much a part of the history of this city as the circle itself.”

Cobb said the fence was erected in the first place only because vandals had broken into the storage facility on the property on more than one occasion and stole some of the recreation association’s belongings.

Among the stolen goods was a lawnmower. Cobb said he spent several years keeping up the area with his own mower after that.

Nancy Powell, a Ringgold resident Cobb said is daughter to one of the gentlemen who originally sold the polo fields to Fort Oglethorpe, said city officials have a history of not following the contract.

“We have a national treasure right there in the heart of your city, and I would ask that you respect it,” she said to the council.

Her husband, Jim Powell, said the Fort Oglethorpe Recreation Association at one time had promised to begin moving the ball fields from Barnhardt Circle and would have at least one removed by 2007.

“2007 has come and passed and now they’ve added a cricket pavilion,” he said.

Public works director Jeff Long, who also sits on the rec board, said he knew of no promise to begin removing fields from the area.

Gerry Depken, a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission as well as a Fort Oglethorpe resident and professional preservationist, suggested the council form a study group to help members decide the future of the area and let everyone be a part of the project.

At one point during the meeting Cobb warned that if the council were to vote on the matter, a decision to remove the fence and pitch to return the area to its “original” status could mean more than eliminating only those two things.

It could also mean removing the second story of the building for the Sixth Cavalry Museum, the helicopter on display at the museum, the electrical box, and trees planted by the Post Community Association.

“You need to be careful what you wish for,” Cobb said.

“Outstanding,” Parrish replied while other audience members clapped at the proposal.

Yet the council never took a vote.

Interim City Manager and City Attorney Ron Goulart said officials kept the spirit of the contract and charter whether or not they broke the letter of the law.

New police hire criticized

In other business at the meeting, council member Harold Silcox said the recent hire of a part-time police and safety training officer and was a bad move on the part of Goulart.

Silcox did not mention Doug Howell’s name, but he put in enough details to make it clear he was referring to no one else. Howell is a former Fort Oglethorpe police chief who retired from the department amid an internal investigation in August 2006.

Since his hire last month, he was given an office in the police department and a city car to drive. He is paid $15 an hour up to 20 hours a week.

“We borrowed from our reserve fund to even balance our budget,” Silcox said, “We do not need another employee that this is his only job… especially this employee.”

Silcox said there are already five certified training officers within the police department that could have done the job without hiring someone else. Goulart did not respond during the meeting, but in an interview later he said the move was just good common sense.

“I have high dollar employees sitting in high dollar offices who have been delegated the responsibility of training, and that’s a lot of money,” he said. “I got those people out of those offices and put them on the road where they’ve been trained to work.”

Silcox said there are others who could be doing Howell’s job, but Goulart said Howell is highly qualified and will come in on any shift where he is needed so that he doesn’t have to deal out overtime pay to officers with higher salaries.

“He has more certificates and certifications for training than Tennessee has winds over Alabama, and I am getting him for a fraction of the cost that I am currently paying training personnel,” Goulart said.

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