By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
We may be heading for autumn, but baseball/softball work is continuing in Decatur at not one but two diamonds.
City Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert told city council at its latest meeting that work is expected to begin later this month on renovation of the ball diamond at Kekionga Park. Both a men’s league and a co-ed softball league play there.
The successful Kekionga Project and ARPA funds will bring netting and a new backstop to the dilapidated ball field. Custom Net Backstops Inc., which installed nets at the REV Sports Complex, will do the work at Kekionga at a cost of $98,750.
The nets will essentially surround the field and will have a unique feature: they can be raised 10 feet in the event of flooding. That was a requirement of the Department of Natural Resource (DNR) since the area is in a flood plain.
Bleeke Electric, which handled the non-field lighting at the REV, will put in LED lights at the Kekionga diamond for $56,000 and install a new electrical panel – required by Indiana & Michigan – for $7,690.
REV LIGHTS: Meanwhile, lighting of the Formula Field ball diamond (field No. 1 on the west end of the REV Sports Complex) will begin Wednesday and continue through Friday.
Musco Lighting of Dublin, Ohio, will install the lights. Then Bleeke Electric – which has done other non-diamond lighting at the field – will begin wiring the lights into the concession building.
Gilbert announced at the July 18 meeting of city council that an anonymous donor is putting up $125,000 to fund the project.
The city approved spending approximately $14,000 for an “adder” will be placed on one of the new poles, shine in another direction and partially light the field of an adjacent diamond.
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