CROTHERSVILLE — Several years have passed since the lighting around the large baseball field at Countryside Park in Crothersville has worked.

Crothersville Youth League board member Jamy Greathouse said during a middle school baseball game played in the snow one year, they made do with the lights, but it wasn’t ideal.

During a recent Crothersville Town Council meeting, Greathouse said he had received three quotes to convert the lights from halogen to LED.

The lowest bid came in around $9,100. Greathouse, who also is a town councilman, told the council he secured a $5,000 grant from Cummins to put toward the new lighting, and he asked for the town to fund the remaining $4,100.

The lights would be used during the youth league’s games and its Family Fun Friday events presented for the community.

“If you’ve been out there recently, some of (the lights) are hanging and doing different things. They don’t really work anymore,” Greathouse said. “We’re trying to rejuvenate that area out there, and this is one of those steps to getting it back where it needs to be.”

Councilman Aaron Mays asked Greathouse if he had reached out to a couple of local entities about making a donation for the lights. Greathouse said he wasn’t able to make any connections.

Once he secured the grant money, Greathouse said he wanted to move forward because the low bidder, B and C Electric of Crothersville, is looking at starting work in November or December once the ground gets hard enough to where they can take their truck out in the field without sinking down.

The goal is to get the work completed so the youth league can start its spring season in 2022.

Converting to LED lights will save on the electric usage and bill, Greathouse said. Also, the number of lights on the poles around the field ranges from four to 12, and Greathouse said there will only be four with the new lighting.

“It’s going a little greener and getting them back up and running,” he said.

The new lighting will help the youth league with scheduling of games, too. In recent years, games have started at 5:30 p.m. so they can be played before it gets dark. That, however, is not ideal for some parents and other family members to get there on time.

The new lighting also will give the league an opportunity to host tournaments.

“We’ve been asked by other facilities to do that to make money off of it just for use of the field. We can’t use that as a fundraiser on the field currently because we don’t have the lights to support that,” Greathouse said.

“And our Family Fun Fridays end up being cut short sometimes — only an hour and a half — because once darkness sets in, we don’t have lights out there to continue the activities,” he added.

The council approved up to $4,100 to be spent from town funds for the installation of lights. Greathouse abstained from the vote due to his association with the youth league board, and Councilwoman Terry Richey was absent.

At its next meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, the council will consider approval of bids for the project.