INNISFAIL – The town is moving ahead to create a premier baseball facility, one that is hoped to attract quality tournaments and bring peace of mind to many about the increasing need for more and better facilities to play ball.
At council’s regular meeting on April 12, local contractor Howell's Excavating Ltd., which built the new horseshoe pits project in 2019, won the bid to build Innisfail’s field of dreams at the site of the current Diamond 7 facility near the arena.
The contract is worth $202,381 and will be funded by provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiative funds. The total project cost is anticipated to be $246,158.10, which includes engineering, construction and contingency. This cost is under the anticipated project budget of $250,000.
“It’s exciting. We are hoping that everybody in town gets on board with this. It is going to be an exciting thing for the town of Innisfail,” said Murray Reay, the vice-president of the five-member Community Facility Enhancement Association (CFEA) that has been working on the project with the town for the past two years.
Council was told during a presentation by Steven Kennedy, the town’s director of operational services, that there has been a history of drainage problems at Diamond 7 that left the field unusable for large portions of past seasons.
Kennedy said the municipality was approached by CFEA to work collaboratively to upgrade the diamond that would be suitable for hosting provincial and national ball events.
Council was told the CFEA proposal, in conjunction with other ball diamond demands from other community users, led to an engagement and assessment process.
The engagements included the Innisfail Minor Ball Association (IMBA), 590 Slo-Pitch League, the junior Innisfail Merchants and senior men’s Innisfail Trappers.
The town ultimately released an Outdoor Sports Facility Assessment & Enhancement final report on Nov. 20 of last year with most participants in the process supporting the creation of an enhanced facility at Diamond 7 to support baseball in the community, said Kennedy in his report.
“We felt that if we had a better quality field, we could run some high-end provincial and western championships but also for baseball we needed more space. We are running out of room. We don’t have enough diamonds,” said Reay, noting the town only has three that are currently baseball diamonds.
Reay said an upgraded Diamond 7 will be a good facility not only for the Innisfail Trappers and Innisfail Merchants but for young minor ball players as well.
“We are definitely building it for them to be able to use it as well,” he said.
Council was told the town’s financial contribution will cover the cost to construct the diamond with basic amenities such as grading, grass, shale, fencing, while the CFEA will contribute toward enhanced amenities like irrigation, concrete dugout with storage, scoreboard and lighting.
“It will look completely different. Eventually, we are hoping to have bleachers with an announcer’s stand,” said Reay. “We eventually hope to have a score clock.
"It will have bigger dugouts than all the other diamonds. It will be a grass infield. It will look more like a professional diamond when it is done.”
No timeline for construction was announced for the project but work is expected to be completed this summer.
Reay, who is also the president of the IMBA, said CFEA members will be meeting with town administration this month on the path forward.
“Hopefully once we get through COVID we can bring back baseball into Innisfail and help drive the economy as well when we do it,” said Reay.
