Eager anticipation can hardly describe the attitude of Cowichan Lake’s baseball and slo-pitch fans as they count the days until the renovated Centennial Park fields open.
Councillors have been getting updates for weeks, eying the calendar hopefully while watching the torrential rain fall, but time is marching on and on Tuesday, Feb. 6, Kelly Bergstrom, president of Lake Cowichan Minor Baseball, appeared as a delegate for his group at the town’s parks committee meeting.
Bergstrom said that the minor baseball group has now incorporated itself as a society, which opens up a world of new funding opportunities.
He’s been getting help from Coun. Bob Day in applying for one of them, run by the Toronto Blue Jays, called Jays Care, Bergstrom said.
“Nanaimo applied for that one two years ago and they got $120,000, so we’re hoping for that.”
But there’s more than that, Bergstrom said. Having another top class field in the Valley is an asset for the area.
“The Cowichan Valley Mustangs are looking at having weekend games up here. I also learned tonight that the Harbour Cats [from Victoria] are looking at coming up here for practices; they are talking about having a tour of the Valley and Lake Cowichan as one of their stops, which is nice.”
Bergstrom said the society was delighted with the placement of the new fields.
“The home team dugout is going to be on the shady side,” he said, to laughter from council. “I won’t have to sit in the sun.”
According to Nagi Rizk, “the ballfield Phase 1 has been completed. We did as much as we could. There were some deficiencies that we opted out of, we just deducted it from the price of the contract. The job is complete as far as the contractor is concerned. He still had some equipment onsite but as soon as it’s gone we’ll change the locks.
Next up are quotes for the dugouts, the backstop, the permanent fence around the perimeter, and the removable fencing around the outfield of both fields.
The pitchers’ mounds were not included in that group because they are different, Rizk said.
“Those will be purchased and installed differently,” he said, explaining the fencing people would have to order the pitchers’ mounds and would then add a cost for that in their bid. The Town of Lake Cowichan could just as easily order the mounds themselves, he said.
“We’ll see what is remaining now in the grant. We do have a budget that will come to you for confirmation to continue the remaining works that would allow for the use of the field this year,” Rizk said.
Bergstrom said that the ball teams did not want permanent pitchers mounds, and found that council agreed with him.
Mayor Ross Forrest explained to him that permanent mounds would be likely to leak their soil into the fields, and the material used to build the infields was of a specialized type and very expensive.
“We don’t want to end up contaminating it. We’re better off paying the price and they are quite costly for portable mounds, especially for the bigger kids, but it’s probably money saved in the long run, rather than seeing the contamination of the fields. This is so that people are aware of why that choice is being made.”
Coun. Tim McGonigle said that using portable mounds would also give the town more options for various uses of the fields.
Naming the ballfields is another matter that must be addressed by the Town of Lake Cowichan.
It’s coming time to do it officially, according to Mayor Ross Forrest.
“The name Dawn Coe Jones Field has already been chosen. But we should consider the others very soon,” he said. “We should have a name in place for the official opening.”
lexi.bainas@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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