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Community optimistic towards field renovations

CALCUTTA — With all the progress that has taken place for the Beaver Local school district’s baseball and softball field renovation project, parents and volunteers involved are optimistic that the fields will be ready by this spring.

During Monday’s school board meeting, Billy Pancake, the project’s head coordinator, provided an update to the board on the progress of the project and work that has been completed that have been made since the project began this past September.

The project came about after several parents, including Pancake, expressed dissatisfaction over the teams not being able to use the fields since the new K-12 campus’ opening two years ago, along with the sub-par work handled by previous contractors, who had left rocks, porcelain, glass and other debris in the ground before putting down the sod and seed properly.

Pancake said that he spoke with Superintendent Eric Lowe, athletic director Rick Prescott and board member Lance Shultz about four weeks ago to see if they would be able to set up at the field at the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center–the baseball team’s longtime home field–due to the rain that had fallen, but learned a week ago that the baseball field will be ready for this spring.

“Anybody that’s been out there would be able to tell the huge difference than what it was three months ago,” Pancake said.

According to Pancake, the baseball field has about one day left of work, to which Pusateri Excavating would need to finish the pitcher’s mound and the batter’s box, while the fencing–which has also been reportedly not set up properly–and the warning track still have to be set up.

As for the softball field, Pancake said that will consist of three days of work, to which the entire infield will be removed and new material will be brought back in.

He added that the dugouts have been completed except for the softball fields, which he expects to be completed by the start of the season.

“All in all, I guess, the good news is, I would say, probably more than likely, I would say a hundred percent that next season, both teams would start the season on the fields,” Pancake said. “I don’t see any reason for that not to happen.”

In terms of finances, Pancake said the project has raised $20,361.50 in donations from a previous fundraiser. From that, $11,470 was paid to Pusateri Excavating to purchase mix for the fields, who in turn also donated $3,100 of mix. The project also received sod four different times, which altogether came to a total of $3,768.36.

This leaves a total of $2,023.14, which will go towards the school boosters club fund.

Pancake said the club looks to purchase a tarp for home plate on the baseball field as the school already has a tarp for the pitcher’s mound, and both the school and the boosters club will work together to purchase an infield tarp for the softball field, believed to cost at least $3,450.

Pancake also took time to thank several organizations including Pusateri Excavating, Pancake Nursery, Rogers Feed Mill, Feezle Auto Wrecking, F&V Fireworks, Rollerena, Clearcreek, Protech Electric and Smith’s Farm.

Both board members Shultz and Jerry Barnett expressed satisfaction with Pancake and the volunteers work and expressed optimism come spring time.

“Once the fields open up in the spring, I think it’s going to be absolutely beautiful,” Shultz said.

“It’s just nice to see that we can all work together, and at the end of the day, we can have such a positive outcome,” Barnett said.

One issue that will be worked on, as mentioned, is the outfield fence, which was previously reported to have not been set properly and will need to be reset.

Local resident Lee Cain expressed his dissatisfaction on hearing about the condition of the fence, and inquired as to who had signed off on the original project two years ago, who wrote the specifications for the fence, and who would be responsible for repairs of the fence.

Shultz said the board is looking into all options into recovering costs for mistakes that were made during the first renovations, but did not have any other information at the time of the meeting and look to provide answers in future meetings.

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