Field of Dreams Committee outlines renovation plans

Tuesday night, the newly formed “Field of Dreams Committee” held its first meeting regarding renovating and upgrading baseball and softball fields throughout the city of Vandalia.

The committee outlined its proposed goals in a four-phase plan.

Phase one will mostly focus on the high school baseball field. Improvements include fixing the drainage problem on upper baseball field, installing sprinklers, laying sod in the infield and reseeding the outfield, installing a warning track in the outfield, rebuilding the pitcher’s mound and building a pitcher’s mound in foul territory for pitchers to warm up on.

The committee estimates that phase one alone will cost about $35,000. Phase one also includes making improvements to the lower baseball field. But more than 90 percent of the costs will be for upper field construction.

Phase two is to fix the drainage on the softball field, reduce the foul territory on the upper baseball field, build new dugouts, and install a new backstop closer to home plate

Phase three includes building a press box and improving all tee ball fields in the city.

Phase four is simply to maintain fields, perhaps the most expensive phase.

The Vandalia Park District  has agreed to let the committee fix the fields.

The committee’s first goal is to get the word out about the plan, to let the community know that ball parks across the city are in desperate need of improvements.

The committee plans to pay for the renovations by selling sponsorships.

“If you go around to all these ball parks and you see these big signs on the outfield walls, well those are sponsorships,” Donald Murrell said. “We can sell those every year.”

The committee is also looking into ways to honor individuals who make sizeable donations to the project. Murrell said he would be contacting local businesses in the coming weeks.

They are also looking into grants. For now, the bulk of the money will come via a loan and the money will be handled and distributed by the Old Capital Foundation.

Further down the line, the committee plans to pay off the loan with money from sponsorships, hosting tournaments and holding other fundraisers.

Hosting tournaments will not only help pay off the loan but will bring money into the community at local hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.

Vandalia High School baseball coach Luke Hohlt presented the plan for the baseball renovations, including examples of what other area schools have done.

He also announced that on Aug. 5, phase one will begin. All of the grass on the upper baseball field will be sprayed and killed off. From there, the field will be graded so that water drains off properly.

Gateway Sprinkler Systems of Collinsville will put in the sprinkler systems.

Sod will be laid in the infield and the outfield will be seeded.

The plan is to have all of phase one completed by the start of next year’s baseball season.

VCHS Softball coach Brian Buscher was also on hand to discuses improvements for the softball field. Buscher believes that the mix of dirt and sand that was put on the field last year worked great, but the mix needs more sand in it.

The group talked about other improvements it would like to see done and equipment that it believes is needed to maintain the fields, but no other plans or purchases were put on books at this time.

Over the next few weeks, the baseball field will start its transformation, and the committee plans to meet again on Aug. 18.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, community members ranging from coaches, parents, school board officials, parents of former VCHS students and Vandalia business owners were in attendance.

Superintendent Rich Well was in attendance to voice his opinion, “I’m in for whatever you’re in for. I’ve got both feet in.”