The newly formed Town of Versailles Park Board held its first public meeting on Thursday, October 13.

The new park board is composed of four Versailles residents: Gil Landwehr, Matt McNew, Brian Romans and Jeff Hamm. All board members were present.

New soccer fields at the sports complex were discussed during the meeting.

“As for the soccer fields, I talked to DeDe Fields and Andi Richter,” said Landwehr. “They have intentions of ‘if we build it they will come’.” Fields and Richter are members of the Ripley County Soccer Club.

The board presented blueprints of the soccer fields to be added to the sports complex. They were not happy with the direction of the soccer fields in the blueprints and are looking to change the direction in order to make parking and access to the fields easier for everyone. The board is in agreement to go forward with the planning and building of the soccer fields and is now waiting on the town board’s approval.

Board members explained the building of the soccer fields would not affect the plans to build an additional baseball/softball field at the complex.

The park board also discussed making the sports complex more handicap accessible. “We need to be handicap accessible by the time we open in May,” said Landwehr.

Short-term and long-term plans for the sports complex were also on the evening’s agenda. The short-term plans are the soccer fields and the baseball/softball field additions. As for long-term plans, the board hopes to have a walking trail that could also act as a road that would allow for easier access to the complex.

In other news:

• The board approved to immediately post an ad in the newspaper for an applicant to run the 2012 summer baseball and softball program.

• The board approved to eventually post an ad in the newspaper for an applicant to run next year’s soccer program.

• The board agreed to hold quarterly meetings beginning in January 2012. The board will meet the second Thursday of the months of January, April, July, and October at 8:00 p.m. at the Verasilles Town Hall. Meetings are subject to change.