Where bleachers and a press box are supposed to be, there are skeletal steel frames that tower above the field.
Where a backstop will one day keep errant baseballs from leaving the playing field, rebar and concrete poke out above mounds of freshly exposed dirt.
Construction at the Soden’s Grove baseball field, which is going through a $450,000 facelift, has been advancing slowly these days thanks to several weeks of freezing temperatures and plenty of ice and snow, and the start of practice for Emporia High’s baseball season is less than a week away.
“It’s been tough,” said Dave Markowitz of contractor Mitchell-Markowitz Construction. “We’ve been able to work through part of it, but the weather has definitely affected it (construction).”
So far, the main framing for the covered bleachers has been erected, and with the recent warm temperatures, priming and painting has started. Markowitz said within the next few days, footings and foundations for the press box and storage area will begin to be poured.
The question remains, though: Will the field be ready for the EHS baseball team to use?
“I think the field will be usable,” Markowitz said. “We’ve got some areas around the backstop that we’re going to have to keep them away from for a while until we can get the concrete blocks laid up for the backstop wall and get our netting up.”
At least one person isn’t too concerned about the construction affecting the Emporia High baseball teams’ practice and game schedule this spring — EHS baseball coach Mike Strickland.
“Whatever they’re doing is best,” Strickland said. “It’s disappointing that it won’t be finished, but sometimes you can’t control things that are out of your hands like the bad weather and some of the really cold days we’ve been having.
“In a perfect world, it would be done before the season, and that would have been nice. But it’s not, so we’ll move on.”
Even if the field is usable by the start of practice, which Markowitz insists that it will be, the EHS baseball team might not even use it, should the weather not allow it.
“We’ll probably be indoors for the first few practices depending on the weather,” Strickland said. “We’ll play with what’s there, and if for some reason we can’t, we’ll make adjustments. We’ll play out of town.
“I love playing at home, but I love playing, bottom line.”
Emporia High plays its first home game on March 30 against Washburn Rural.
The entirety of the construction is not slated to be finished until sometime in late July or early August, Markowitz said.
mythoughts (anonymous) says...
Who is paying for this? City taxes?
February 21, 2007 at 4:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )