Berkley city, schools, Dads’ Club partner to improve baseball field

BERKLEY — An agreement between the city of Berkley, its school district and local Dads’ Club will lead to improvements at the baseball field known as Community Field No. 1.

The working group of Berkley, Berkley School District and the Berkley Dads’ Club will create the Community Field No. 1 Enterprise Fund to be used to improve the field, which is located near the Parks and Recreation Department on Robina Avenue.

The main issue with Community Field No. 1 cited by the group has been its condition.

“It really needed to be replaced, and so we started trying to come up with ways (to improve it),” said David Schmidt, president of the Dads’ Club. “Just from our standpoint, we couldn’t afford to do it all on our own.”

As laid out by interim City Manager Nate Geinzer at the Berkley City Council’s Oct. 7 meeting, the city’s general fund would provide a loan of $200,000 to the Community Field No. 1 Enterprise Fund with a five-year payback term at a 4.5% interest rate.

The school district and Dads’ Club both would get five-year permits for exclusive usage rights. Both permit fees would be $35,000 at the start with a 3% annual escalator.

The permit for the district runs March 1 through May 31, with an option for an extension if any teams make the playoffs, and the club’s permit is for June 1 through July 31 and Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.

“(The field) has served the community fairly well, but it hasn’t seen any investment in many years,” Geinzer said. “We have grade issues out there. Drainage is a huge issue out there. There’s a number of times when we can’t utilize the field. … We also did some grass additions behind home plate and down some baselines a number of years ago that makes it harder for us to maintain them.”

The city can issue permits to additional groups to use the field, though the Dads’ Club and school district have the first right of refusal during their usage period.

Geinzer stated that the goal is to bring in improvements that could be used for next season, and the field would be the first step.

“What we imagine is this working group would begin to look at what other capital needs exist out there and work on building strategies to raise capital to make further investments out on that field,” he said.

School District Superintendent Scott Francis said in a prepared statement the district is grateful that all three groups are able to collaborate to improve the field.

“This is our District home field for our baseball teams and any improvements we can make to our students’ experiences are greatly appreciated. I’d also like to express my gratitude to Dave Schmidt, President of the Berkley Dads’ Club, for bringing this idea to the table,” he stated.

“While we look forward to an improved baseball field, we are equally as excited to build a new varsity softball field on District property in the near future.”

Schmidt also said the field is just the beginning and they have plans to renovate the whole back side of the field and put in new dugouts and the concession stands.

“It’s a unique situation,” he said. “Normally, a school would have a field and school dollars would go to it, or a city would have a field and it’s kind of just always been this way, I guess. So we have to work together and it’s gone really well. It’s gone really well and trying to figure out the best way to attack this. And I think everybody’s done a good job of putting the kids first here and we want to get this done for the kids.”