Plans to create new baseball diamonds in the northwest end of Carman have taken another step forward. Council has approved a by-law allowing the Town to expropriate about twenty-six acres of land north of the existing soccer pitches.

"It's just to secure the land," said Mayor Bob Mitchell, adding this bylaw is all part of a land swap between the Town and R.M. of Dufferin, and with private owners and developers.

"Years ago we bought a bunch of land...that was over there because we wanted to do this. And then we went through a big plan to build ball diamonds and figure out where they could go, and these guys came along and they had bought a bunch of adjacent land so we just swapped it out," explained Mitchell. "It made sense to have everything out where the soccer pitches are rather than disjointed."

He noted that it was cheaper to grow through the expropriation process rather than go through the motions of each party purchasing the others' parcel of land.

"There's an agreement that'll come into play that will deal with the swap...here's what the Town and R.M. have to do and here's what they (the private owners and developers) have to do," added Mitchell.

Carman Minor Ball has pushed for added baseball diamonds on multiple occasions. This past season, the organization fielded 23 teams with 199 kids registered.