SANDPOINT — The sound of bats cracking is set to return to Travers Park next month, as construction has begun on new batting cages behind the James E. Russell Sports Center.

The new cages will be at the same spot as the old batting cages, which were torn down during the center’s construction. It will feature two 70-feet long lanes, around 20 feet longer than the old cages, according to Jason Welker, Sandpoint’s Community Planning and Development director. 

"We wanted to do it right,” Welker said. “It’ll have 70 feet by 24 feet of artificial turf to provide that nice authentic grasslike surface. They’re not the old chain link fences ... it’s a pull system that hoists up the net to create batting tunnels.” 

The new batting cages should be complete by fall, in about a month, and will be free for the public to use, when they aren’t reserved by a group or team.  

Welker said the city has received great feedback from the local baseball and softball groups and will continue to communicate with them to improve the facility.  

“The barrier that a pitcher can stand behind in one of those, we’ll obviously need those,” Welker said. “I don’t know if those little league and baseball communities have those right now, if not the city will look into getting those.” 

He added that if there is support from the communities to help fund a pitching machine, the city could look into that as well. 

The project is estimated to cost the city $22,000, which will be coming out of the Parks Capital Improvement Fund, according to Welker. He added that the cost of the project has been reduced significantly thanks to the park’s maintenance team’s ability to pour concrete.  

In addition to the restoration of batting cages in Travers Park, Welker said that the park’s team is installing poles for safety netting on fields one and two. These nets are being installed to protect attendees at the new playground from rogue foul balls. 

Welker said that construction on the cages was always planned to return to Travers Park, but that other projects, like the playground, took priority. He said the overwhelming amount of work required by the maintenance team before the Fourth of July delayed the construction of the new cages. 

"We were always going to put it up, it was just a matter of where it would fall on our workflow,” Welker said. “It’s really after Fourth of July that we can start turning to these parks capital projects.”