Council delays decision on miracle field proposal
Administration allowed time to meet with Riverside group on idea’s feasibility
A push to build a miracle field at Riverside Baseball Park has gone into extra innings.
Administration had recommended keeping two baseball fields at the park but selling land north and south of the field, with an asking price of about $1.8 million, preventing a miracle field from being built there.
The Riverside Minor Baseball Association has proposed chipping in $1.6 million to $1.8 million to help build a miracle field, along with other amenities, such as a pedestrian/bicycle track.
At Monday night’s meeting, with baseball fans packing council chambers, councillors voted to delay the decision on the 4.5 acres of land till June.
The plan is to allow administration time to meet with Riverside Minor Baseball Association representatives and prepare a report on the feasibility of building an accessible baseball field — with rubber surface to allow the use of wheelchairs and other such accessibility equipment.
“I think they’re considering the idea,” Bill Kell, chairman of the Save the Park Committee, said after the decision was delayed.
“They would be remiss if they didn’t look at an opportunity for an organization to contribute $1.6 million to $1.8 million in order to keep the community alive.”
The Riverside Minor Baseball Association has a history of contributing funds and energy to improve park facilities. Besides helping build fields in the past, the group contributed $40,000 to build washrooms at Realtor Park, and $175,000 for lights at Riverside Baseball Park, in order to host the bantam national championships for eight consecutive years.
The group has also spent about $1 million on the Riverside Sports Complex, just to the east of Riverside Baseball Park, that features batting cages, basketball, soccer and pickleball.
Kell said the land in question was donated in the 1920s by a Riverside family specifically to create a park.
He said the report that went to council Monday — which included three residential and commercial development options, two of which would have removed both the 200-foot and 300-foot baseball diamonds — did not suit his group’s wishes.
“Hopefully, they see the opportunity the city has to partner with an organization that has a history of partnering on different projects,” Kell said. “It’s an area that is a park, has historically been a park, and that should remain a park.”