With baseball and softball season quickly approaching, the project to install turf at Fort Borst Park’s ballfields is nearing completion.
Due to seasonal rain keeping some of the fields …
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With baseball and softball season quickly approaching, the project to install turf at Fort Borst Park’s ballfields is nearing completion.
Due to seasonal rain keeping some of the fields unusable for weeks at a time going into spring in the past, many tournaments and teams were seeking fields elsewhere.
The project has been an ongoing joint effort to install artificial turf at a number of the baseball and softball fields at Borst Park in order to make them playable, even if it's still a bit soggy.
The project is being carried out by the Centralia School District (CSD), the Twin Cities Sports Commission (TCSC) and the Lewis County Public Facilities District (PFD), which focused on turfing the Quad Complex at Borst Park.
Additionally, the City of Centralia funded the installation of artificial turf at Borst Park’s Wheeler Field and Field 2. The turf project is nearing completion just in time for spring, as many of the fields look ready to play.
Though the turf is installed, other improvements are still needed.
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the PFD board held its monthly meeting and approved the reallocation of unused turf funds to instead pay for other upgrades at Borst Park’s fields — mainly, adding more parking.
Initially, the board had decided to turf two additional fields in the Quad Complex — Fields 8 and 9 — in September 2024, but CSD concerns over how state auditors would see the money being spent compared with what was originally proposed for the project led to only Field 9 being turfed, according to PFD Board President Ron Averill.
“That’s all done now,” Averill said. “... But what that did was that left us with about $750,000 that was unspent.”
News of Borst Park’s fields being turfed led to fields being reserved for baseball and softball tournaments for 29 weeks through March and October. The need for additional parking was clear.
Reallocated funds could do more than just pay for more parking, as some of the money might be used to fund other improvements to the fields.
That could include fencing for bullpen areas, portable pitching mounds, netting for fencing, batting box mats and an athletic field paint sprayer.
“This is subject to change. The board is continuing to negotiate on this,” Averill said.
Making sure Borst Park has enough parking to handle the uptick in demand to use the fields is still the main concern.
“Both we and the city are getting a lot of inquiries to use these fields now that they’re turfed,” Averill added.
Additionally, Centralia Parks and Recreation Director and Deputy City Manager Amy Buckler gave an update on the city’s side of the turfing project during the Centralia City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
Along with turfing both Wheeler Field and Field 2, the city installed new lights for the fields.
“The work is about 98% done. We just have a few punch-list items that the contractors need to finish up,” Buckler said. “... Everything will be ready by March when tournament season starts, and, boy, are we seeing a lot of demand for the turfed fields.”
She added that almost every weekend between mid-March and October is booked.
In addition to turfing Field 2, the city also installed turfed bullpens in the field as it is used for girls championship fastpitch softball games. Wheeler Field’s bullpens were also turfed.
New bleachers, complete with Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sections, will also be coming to Wheeler Field, along with some new seating to replace dilapidated grandstand seats.
“That’s taking the grant money and stretching it as far as we can go to make improvements,” Buckler said.
Just prior to the official start of the baseball and softball seasons in March, the CSD, PFD, TCSC and the city will hold a community celebration to commemorate the newly turfed fields.
“I don’t have a date for it yet, but look for it to be in early March,” Buckler said.
In total, approximately $4.8 million was allocated to turf the fields by all the partners involved, with $1.45 million coming from the City of Centralia’s American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The CSD had a total of $3,370,000 budgeted to turf the fields of the Quad Complex.
A total of $2,430,000 of that came from the state budget. Additional funding came from a TransAlta grant totalling $430,000, and the TCSC provided $110,000 while the PFD provided $400,000.