By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–The Helena High School baseball and softball teams will move up from Class 5A to Class 6A in Spring 2017 and the Helena City Council approved an expense request at the Nov. 28, council meeting to add additional seats at both fields to accommodate the expected larger crowds as well as improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Helena Mayor Mark Hall said the additional seats added would be approximately 100 seats for softball and 140 new seats for the baseball field.

“These seats are ones we could not put in the initial funding of the project because the funds were not available,” Hall said. “The education 1-cent tax fund has built sufficiently to pay the bond and to also have some money in there to start to finish this project we committed to do when we first built the athletics facilities. This money does not come from the general fund and does not affect any other budget.”

In addition to approving the new seats, the expense request also included funding for ADA improvements for the sidewalks for wheelchair access and restroom access around the fields.

Up to $75,000 was approved by the Helena City Council for the new seats and ADA improvements from the 1-cent tax fund.