Improvements include new fencing, rebuilding the diamonds, installing shade structures, landscaping maintenance and adding siding to the storage facility, according to Alicia Eckhart, Fairborn’s parks and recreation superintendent.
The projects will be paid for out of the park’s capital improvement fund. City Council recently awarded a $75,000 contract to Allied Fence Builders to replace 90 percent of the fences on softball diamonds 1, 2 and 3.
“This will really enhance our softball program,” Deputy Mayor Marilyn McCauley said. “It’s a mess out there, and we need it badly.”
The first tournament is scheduled for the last weekend in April, and adult softball leagues begin the first week of May. A girls fast-pitch league also will be on Wednesday nights.
The fields are expected to be ready in time for the first event, Eckhart said.
“We have thousands of outside visitors who come to that park, and it’s a tourist destination,” she said. “We want to make this a family-oriented complex over the next couple of years.”
Fairborn City Manager Deborah McDonnell said the fields are in a flood zone, which has taken a toll on the park.
“It’s a premier park for us, and it’s used all season very heavily,” McDonnell said. “It’s a significant economic driver for Fairborn, and it’s important we put money into it.”
Fairborn officials and State Rep. Rick Perales, R-Beavercreek, announced last week the city is one step closer to a $300,000 grant from the state to construct a new entrance for Fairfield Park on Broad Street.
The new entrance would help stimulate economic development along the Broad Street business district, officials said. That project — estimated to be around $500,000 — would be completed next year if the grant is secured, Eckhart said.
That would push back other planned projects for Fairfield Park another year, she said. Those projects include a second permanent restroom ($70,000), drainage repairs ($30,000) and installing lights on diamond 3 ($100,000).
The new entrance would be on two vacant city-owned lots on Broad Street and feature granite park signs, landscaping and a new asphalt road. The city’s portion of the project would come from the park’s capital improvement fund. Existing roadways and parking areas also would be repaved.
The Parks & Recreation Division spends an average of $175,000 to $200,000 a year on park improvements, Eckhart said.
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