DUBOIS – Showers Field was a topic of discussion at the DuBois Area School District Board of Directors’ meeting Wednesday night.
Terry Noble had approached the school board during the public comment period as he had done at the DuBois City Council in May. Having been notified by Noble that he would be coming to this meeting the school board had prepared some complaints based off of the Courier-Express’s coverage of his pitch to the city council.
Noble provided a history of Showers Field. The no- DuBois Rockets returned to the field in 1949 after a hiatus. Between this time the lighting system, scoreboard, grandstand and press box that once graced the field had become victims of the passage of time.
“I believe I shock no one when I say Showers Field is not a top level facility,” said Noble, responding to a line in the school district’s last lease that, according to Noble, stated the field would be maintained as a “top level facility”.
According to Noble the only remaining structures from the 1949 Showers Field are the dug outs, restrooms and maintenance shed. The two portable toilets aren’t the aforementioned restrooms.
Noble had been saying it would cost the DuBois Area School district around $2 million to build two new fields in Sandy Township rather than maintain the currently used Showersfield.
“Where do you get the $2 million from?” asked School Board Member John Yount.
The school board said repeatedly during the discussion that after two years just reached the point they were beginning to look at the baseball fields. As of the meeting the school board hadn’t progressed enough to get a dollar figure for themselves.
Yount also asked Noble on the Courier-Express quoting him at the city council meeting as saying it would only cost $500,000 to get showers field “up to snuff”.
Noble said that the $500,000 did not include such changes as turning the field, buying a property in the way of turning the field, the grandstand, a higher left field fence or lighting.
When asked about the other field plans Noble gave two figures: $2.5 million for a version that would have more parking and would require demolishing the magistrate’s office. $1.6 million for a version that would only need to acquire one other property.
Using these figures, Noble admitted he was unable to see how the district could manage cheaper for $2 million for the two fields.
The main points of contention between the two groups were over how many buildings would need to be condemned and the two years that have passed with nothing being done.
“To get it up to speed tonight, are you or the city ready to say how many houses will have to be condemned?” asked School Board Vice President James Mackie.
With one property in the way of converting Showers Field to regulation standards the School Board worried over what would happen if the property owner didn’t agree to sell, but progress has been made to the point said property was needed. The school board tended to see the scenario of the apartment needing to be condemned by the city in a worst case scenario, and didn’t want to be the indirect cause for a house being condemned for a baseball field.
Noble said that if school board did not get involved with the project there would be no need to change the field enough
Noble wanted to speed up the current progress in restoring Showers Field. The school board explained, in their defense, they had perceived lack of progress on the other end of the project. So the school district had moved down the list of many higher priority projects.
City of DuBois Mayor and Acting City Manager John “Herm” Suplizio had been invited to speak on the subject. He explained that he couldn’t speak for the city council, but he wouldn’t vote for condemning a property for a ball field, and expressed doubts anyone else on the council would.
The city has already spent $250,000 helping Showers Field indirectly though the Sandy Lick walkways and bridges project.
“That whole park is coming together,” said Suplizio.
As the owners of Showers Field the City of DuBois would have to be the party who either buys or condemns the apartment building should it come to that.
“We want to look at the numbers to see where we are at,” said School Board President Repine.
He explained that this was for the best interest of the tax payers to see if building the two new fields or restoring Showers Field would be cheaper. At the moment the school district hadn’t done the research to give an informed statement either way yet.
“I don’t want to stand in the way,” said Yount.
It was thrown on the table that perhaps the school board could allow Noble to make progress and withdraw entirely from Showers Field if it was a road block. No decision was made either way.
Of the 50 games a year at Showers Field the school district hosts 20 of them.