Marco Island and Collier Co School Board leave beloved baseball field in limbo

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — The Tyler Beck Memorial Baseball Field, behind Tommie Barfield Elementary School, is in limbo. The City of Marco Island and the Collier County School Board are currently working to find out what to do with it.

Kelly Mason is the Collier County School Board Chair.

"Tommie Barfield doesn't have really very much designated green space for recess or field days," Mason said.

The baseball field is a place where Collier School Board members, among so many others who live on and around Marco Island, grew up spending time.

The current agreement says the City of Marco Island is in charge of paying for maintenance. The first week of February, the City came to the School Board and said they no longer are interested in doing so, as it needs about $70,000 in repair before kids can play here again.

"Right now we're waiting on the City to come back to us with kind of a new proposal so that we could keep the baseball field as a baseball field for the children on Marco Island," she said.

Fox 4 reached out to the City of Marco Island. We are waiting on a response. If they stand firm on their decision, this will soon be a regular field.

"The maintenance for something like that is far less," Mason said.