FELLSMERE — The equivalent of human bumper cars is coming to Fellsmere’s Operation Hope grounds, at least on a trial basis.
The Fellsmere Council heard plans for the temporary addition of a sport called knockerball in a field located at Operation Hope. The applicant plans to run the field four days a week, eight hours a day.
Knockerball consists of people – of all ages – donning an inflatable ball-like apparatus that covers all but their legs and running around trying to knock others down inside a roped area.
“If I were 60 years younger,” said Vice Mayor Joel Tyson, who is in his 80s, he’d love to participate in such a sport. “I’m too fragile now.”
Timothy Hoover, of Sebastian, filed the special event permit, seeking a full year for his start-up venture to test the waters before making a larger financial commitment.
Council, however, would only approve a 90-day permit, per code, and offered the opportunity to come back to Council for a 90-day extension.
Hoover told the Council that he wasn’t sure that 180 days would be long enough for him to determine the viability of knockerball in Fellsmere.
As it is, he said he’s facing approximately $15,000 to get started, which includes fencing off an area for the sport and renting a portable toilet.
Community Development Director Mark Mathes recommended to Council that they approve the special event permit and offer the extension. He said in the meantime, staff would move forward with proposed changes to the special event permit portion of the City code, which the City has been planning to do anyway, and come up with some suggestions for such endeavors.
If such changes are found to be favorable toward Hoover’s knockerball business, and Council approves, Hoover could be allowed to continue using the field under the new rules while the City undergoes the formal process of adopting the ordinances.
Hoover plans to run knockerball from 10 a.m. to dusk daily Thursday through Sunday starting Sept. 20, according to the permit application. There will be no food vendors on site, though Hoover does plan to sell bottled water.
Operation Hope is located at 12285 County Road 512, across from MESA Park.