The Kalispell City Council doesn’t seem inclined to pay the Lakers baseball club back for $17,189 of work it paid to have done at its two fields.

But a council member posed a new question on Monday: Whether the Lakers fields in south Kalispell should be given to the dogs so dog owners get Kalispell’s first dog park and the Lakers could move to new and improved fields at the Kidsports athletic complex.

As council members continued a debate about reimbursing the Lakers, that’s the “crazy idea” that council member Phil Guiffrida III pitched to end a two-hour work session on Monday.

“I know there’s been talks in the past about moving the Lakers ball fields to Kidsports and it has always come back to the money issue,” Guiffrida said.

With the Lakers struggling to maintain and improve old baseball fields in a flood-prone part of south Kalispell, the bigger question becomes how to consolidate related activities and get the community working together to get big things done.

“The more stakeholders, the greater chance of success,” Guiffrida said.

Such a campaign could pool the fundraising powers of Kidsports and its youth sports groups, the Lakers and its groups and a new group of people: Animal owners who have long questioned why Kalispell doesn’t have a dog park.

The city possibly would be able to build up its general fund reserves enough to be in a position to offer some match to make it a public-private partnership, Guiffrida said. “It might be worth investigating. I’m not expecting anything. I have these crazy ideas sometimes, as you all know.”

Mayor Tammi Fisher said it sounds like a great idea.

“Why don’t we meet with Kidsports and the Lakers and see what the potential is, and meet with potential users of a dog park and see if there’s any chance of a campaign,” she said.

“I would support it. A community with a dog park is a better community.”

City Manager Doug Russell said there’s already one American Legion-dimension baseball field at Kidsports that was built to give the Lakers a place to play if their fields flooded.

He said Guiffrida’s proposal would likely require two fields to be built: another Legion-dimension field and a Babe Ruth field for the youth team playing at the existing field now.

“We can engage in those talks with both parties,” Russell said, noting that the city will continue to try to hash out a new lease agreement with Kidsports, having paid $2.3 million to buy a permanent easement for the sports complex on state school trust land.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.