The Hale County Commission will hold a public meeting concerning the future of Lion Park in Greensboro at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12 at the county courthouse. The hearing will be held before the regular meeting of the commission at 6 p.m. in the courtroom.

Lion Park is located south of the hospital and features two Little League ballfields.

The Greensboro Lions Club and the local private baseball association are encouraging city and county leaders to look for ways to renovate the park, said Don Ballard, a member of the local Lions Club and manager of Alabama Power in Greensboro.

Community leaders would like to see the park spruced up for a District Dixie Youth Tournament Greensboro will host this year.

The Lions Club originally owned the entire park, he said, but a portion with the walking trail was sold to the county. There are two ballfields, the Lion Field, and the Community Field, which is owned by the City of Greensboro.

There is a current need for another ballfield for the five-year-olds, Ballard said.

Interested citizens would love to see the city and county pool their resources with the help of individual donations to build a "Wheel-and-spoke" complex of four ballfields. Ballard is not expecting something as big as the Demopolis SportsPlex, but he would like to see Greensboro have something nice like Moundville’s or Scott Park in Linden.

The Moundville park was built through donations, he said.

Instead of spending $40,000 to $50,000 to refurbish the current park that will only last a few years, "why not do something and put maybe $200,000 to $300,000 and have a real nice complex."