FIELD OF STREAMS
Pa. providing $125K to restore flood-ravaged Sundstrom Field
POTTSTOWN >> With warnings about a pending 6-inch rainfall Wednesday looming both in the storm clouds and in the weather forecast, officials stood at Pat Sundstrom field Tuesday and celebrated efforts to repair flood damage.
Carl Sundstrom, whose father built the field and who pitched and played outfield there as a teen, said back-to-back floods in 2019 and 2020 had taken their toll on the field.
Owned by the borough, the Sundstrom family has leased and managed the facility for Babe Ruth and American Legion teams for decades.
Sundstrom’s Manatawny Street home overlooks the field, and his son Todd lives next door.
The first storm to devastate the field came in July 2019 and damage to borough property alone was estimated at $1 million. It was the same storm that washed out the pedestrian bridge just downstream in Memorial Park and damaged baseball fields there as well.
The next summer, in August 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias struck, again pushing Manatawny Creek over its banks and into what was left of Sundstrom Field’s infrastructure.
As a result of the two storms, fences were destroyed; one of the dugouts was completely oblit
erated; the field itself was ravaged and the equipment for Sundstrom’s signature snack bar was all but destroyed.
Since then, Sundstrom said, volunteers have helped to restore much of the playing field.
“We’ve had lots of good help cleaning up the field,” said Sundstrom.
But infrastructure repairs are expensive and the field remains vulnerable to more flooding.
Which is why, said Borough Manager Justin Keller, the borough wants to do more than simply put things back the way they were before, only to see it ravaged by another flood.
An engineering firm is being brought in to help with “a flood resilient design, to improve drainage. We want the field to field to withstand being inundated, as it so often is.”
Helping in that effort is $125,000 from the Commonwealth Finance Agency, secured with the help of two of Pottstown’s state representatives in Harrisburg.
State Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist., and state Sen. Bob Mensch, R24th Dist., were on hand to help celebrate the
“I’ve been down here to watch games, and you should see all the people who come here. This is a real gem and a great way for the citizens of Pottstown to see their money spent. After all, it may be grant money, but it’s all really their money.”
— State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24th Dist.
awarding of the funding — $75,000 from the
House side and $50,000 from the Senate side.
“I’ve been down here to watch games, and you
should see all the people who come here,” said Mensch. “This is a real gem and a great way for
the citizens of Pottstown to see their money spent. After all, it may be grant money, but it’s all really their money.”
“And what a great way
to see this family legacy continue,” Mensch said. “After all, this is what America is all about, volunteers and neighbors helping each other.”