ELKINS -- The city's new baseball fields are almost done, but games won't be played until next year, Mayor Bruce Ledford said.
"The fields are basically done except for some concrete stuff, some little odds and ends," Ledford said.
Fun facts
The Elkins High School baseball team won the state championship in 2006 and 2009.
Major League Baseball player Jim King, who played for several teams, including the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Senators, from 1955-1967, later coached Little League baseball in Elkins. He died Feb. 23, 2015.
Source: Staff report
The four-field complex cost $2 million and was built on three acres of city-owned land off North Center Street. Dirt work began in April 2016 and was expected to be finished by December, however rain caused delays, said Duane Richert, a City Council member who served on a committee to get the complex built.
The city has obtained a $75,000 matching grant from the state Parks and Tourism Department to have restrooms and a concession stand built, Ledford said.
Matching funds can be city money and the cost of donated materials. A few companies plan to donate materials to build the remaining structures, Richert said.
"The city has to show they have the equivalent of $75,000," Richert said.
Plans are being drawn for the concession stand and bathrooms, said Jason Justus, an Elkins resident and owner of Justus Cabinets who was a leading proponent of the baseball complex. The buildings will be in the middle of the four fields, which will be arranged in a cloverleaf pattern.
Ledford said he hopes the remaining work will be completed this summer.
The complex includes a field that meets high school baseball regulations with a dirt infield, two baseball/softball fields with dirt infields and a field for ages 12 and under, Justus said.
The complex will have bleachers, scoreboards, fencing and laser-focused stadium lights. The lights are one of the more costly expenses, coming in at nearly $300,000, Ledford said last year.
The $2 million to build the fields came from a ¾-cent sales tax passed in June 2014. The city had three baseball fields until a new high school was built on the land about five years ago, leaving no local fields for Washington County Civic League games.
"We had a lot of kids who didn't want to play ball because they had to travel to other towns to play the games," Richert said.
There was a need for a baseball complex even when there were ballfields in Elkins, Richert said.
"The fields we had held water real bad and wouldn't drain, so when we had rain we had to cancel our games," Richert said.
Richert was coordinator of Elkins' Civic League teams for about five years until 2012. He said teams would have to play games in Greenland and West Fork.
"We've had teams that have played in the Washington County Civic League and have qualified to play in the state Little League tournament," he said.
Elkins youth still participate in Civic League games, which are for ages 16 and under, but are registered as teams from Greenland and West Fork, Richert said.
NW News on 05/01/2017