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Baseball field refurbishment to begin with fence

Doug Flanagan/reporter@qvpr.com
July 01, 2010

The Quincy High School baseball field renovation project is about to begin.

At a June 22 Quincy School District board of directors meeting, Brenda Garrison and Steve Omlin, the leaders of a group that wants to refurbish the field, told the board members that construction of a new outfield fence will begin next month.

Garrison said the group has raised $16,600 in the last year for the project, with $14,160 available to use at this time. Garrison said the estimated cost for the new fencing is $14,000.

“We’re still on track, still going,” Garrison said. “At this point we feel like we need to do something with what we have. After talking to a variety of people and coaches, we feel that the most important thing to do is fence the field as soon as we have enough money.”

Garrison said a golf tournament/benefit auction is scheduled for July 24 at Colockum Ridge Golf Course and that she’s hoping that it can raise about $4,000 for the project.

“We are concerned with how much money we will be able to acquire from now on and it is important to us that the critical areas of need are addressed before funds run out,” she said.

“Probably the most essential part of the entire project is the fence around the perimeter of the field. We think that the money we get from the golf tournament would put us over the top. We would like to go ahead with the fencing as soon as we have sufficient funds in the bank.”

Garrison said the permanent fence will be 4 feet high down the sidelines, 8 feet high in left and right fields and 12 feet high in center field.

“Grading still needs to be done,” she said. “We might have to take some of the fence out and put it back in, but for the most part the fence won’t affect the other things that will be going on.”

Garrison said the fence construction will be completed in the fall.

“(Quincy Thunder coach) Jeremy (McCreary) wants the fence in today, so there’s no issue there,” Garrison said. “But that’s just not realistic at this point.”

Omlin told the board that the fence will feature gate areas so that it won’t inconvenience people who want to use the area for Farmer-Consumer Awareness Day.

“It will just be a different configuration,” said superintendent Burton Dickerson. “We want to continue to support FCAD and their use of our facilities and fields. We still want to make this work and offer strong support for everybody involved.”

Garrison and Omlin will continue to write for grants and look for other fund-raising opportunities on a local level.

They intend to implement the improvements in stages. After the fence is put up, the next phase would include excavating the infield, replacing the irrigation, laying sod in the infield and bringing in new infield soil.

Future phases would include replacing spectator seating, dugout renovation, replacing the backstop and purchasing a new scoreboard

“It is our desire to see a complete renovation,” Garrison said, “and we will continue to work toward that goal.”

• The board of directors approved a motion that will allow students who attend private schools to be transported to and from school by district transportation.

The topic is timely and applicable to the district because of the growth and expansion of Quincy Valley School.

“We did research on this, and we found that this is permissible, but there are requirements,” Dickerson said. “Other districts around us are currently doing this. This is something that would be beneficial to the community and wouldn’t be harmful to the district. I think it should work well. We don’t have an adversarial relationship with the public school. We’re all part of the same endeavor. We’ve worked to be friendly to each other and be supportive to what the private schools have to offer. I think this will be a positive thing.”