The City Park ball field concession stand remained closed during Tuesday night softball league play as Heidi Stewart and Sue Boyd sit behind home plate watching the action.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[6/9/04]Fans wanting some peanuts and Cracker Jack for the old ball game will have to stop and buy them on the way. Concession stands are shuttered at the 14 fields operated by the City of Vicksburg, and there’s little chance any will open this year.

Only one of the six stands has been occupied in recent years, at City Park off Lee and Drummond streets, but this year the city couldn’t find anyone to take the job.

“The city contracts it out by bids, and no one bid this year,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman.

The ball fields are in complexes at Halls Ferry Park, Bazinski Road and City Park. There are also fields off Sherman Avenue, but they are not maintained for league play.

In recent years, concession stands at boys’ baseball and the girls’ softball fields at Halls Ferry have been open during games by the associations overseeing the ball playing. The other concession stands had been contracted to private operators who paid rent to the city.

“This is a small-volume business,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens. But, “we are absolutely still looking. We want to be able to serve people with Cokes and hot dogs.”

Beverly Dent Scott operated the stand at City Park for the past several years. She said a medical condition is preventing her from the work this year.

She said she worked an average of 20 to 25 hours a week. “I loved doing it,” Scott said. “I like being needed by others. It was a neat environment.”

Terrell Stewart, manager of the Vicksburg Express men’s softball team, rented the stand at City Park for a weekend softball tournament for $25.

He said the concession stand was vital to the tournament’s success.

“This is a sanctioned event, and we have to pay for special equipment and umpires,” Stewart said. “It is another way of raising money for it.”

Beauman thinks the answer to concession-stand operators will come after the city opens its new complex next year off Fisher Ferry Road near St. Michael Catholic Church.

The new complex will include 11 softball and eight baseball fields, a community center and nine soccer fields.

But for now, the lack of an operator creates a void, and Stewart said during the week the lack of concessions is evident.

“Everybody notices it.” he said. “But it is not a profitable thing during the week.”

Beauman said the city tried to get booster clubs to operate the concession stands, but to no avail.

However, Leyens is not shutting the door completely on possible vendors for the summer. He said he has tried to get church groups or a Boy Scout troop to run the stands.