HOT SPRINGS -- Officials will break ground today on the city's highly anticipated Majestic Park baseball complex, but the "full-blown work" won't begin until the end of the month because the construction contract is awaiting approval by the Hot Springs Board of Directors.
Major league baseball veterans Lee Smith, Ted Simmons and Al Hrabosky, along with local dignitaries, will help break ground on what eventually will be a five-field baseball complex complete with high-rise bleachers, lighting, concessions stands and turf fields.
The groundbreaking will take place at 6 p.m. at Carson and Belding streets.
"Since we have these major league Hall of Famers in town, we thought we'd do the groundbreaking while they're here," said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, the city's tourism bureau.
"We'll be started once we can get that approval from the city board. We didn't get everything in in time to get it on this board agenda, so hopefully we'll get it on the next one. ... We're going to be started by the end of the month, is our hope, for sure -- full-blown started."
Project Manager Tim Wilson, with Hill & Cox Corp., said his team is ready to start.
"We are in the process of developing our construction schedule right now and have finalized all the plans, going forward applying for a building permit through the city," Wilson said. "We're ready to start today. As soon as we receive the approval from the city board that this project is approved ... we will begin mobilizing to the site."
Wilson said the first thing workers will have to do is establish the site where the complex will stand, which is the location of the old Boys & Girls Club.
"We will have to ... get all of our stormwater and storm erosion control in place," he said. "During that time as well, we will begin grubbing the site and then it will move straight into your overall earthwork, installation of site utilities, storm drainage.
"That will be a lot of the first steps that you will see."
Arrison and Wilson want to have the complex completed by August 2021, but there is no guarantee because of the weather and the coronavirus pandemic.
"We live in Arkansas," Wilson said. "Tomorrow could be 90 degrees, the next day could be a typhoon, and the next day could be a snowstorm."
He added that he can't guarantee what type of "hiccups" might be caused by the pandemic.
Wilson said Hill & Cox Corp. follows its daily protocol, which includes following guidelines from the Arkansas Department of Health as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, he said, the company has avoided any type of outbreak on its job sites.
"I don't have a crystal ball on that," he said. "Right now we're moving forward. I cannot tell you what a month, two months, three months from now will hold. If something of that does come about, we will address it at that time."