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Nanaimo minor baseball must re-submit grant to Blue Jays

NANAIMO – Association had previously won grant to upgrade lighting at ball field.

After securing money for field lighting from the Toronto Blue Jays Care Foundation last year, Nanaimo Minor Baseball Association had to re-submit its application.

The foundation, a charitable arm of Toronto’s Major League Baseball club, announced $150,000 from its Field of Dreams fund to the association last September, which was intended to be used at Mariner Field, across the street from Serauxmen Stadium. Logistical difficulties have led to a site change, said Jereme MacKinnon, minor baseball association vice-president.

It would cost $320,000 for lighting and between $520,000 and $540,000 for an LED option.

“[Mariner Field] used to be a protected swamp area and that’s where a lot of the site drainage would all travel to, around in that area, and there’s some site sloughage that’s starting to happen down the left-field lines and we understand wet areas in that field that have come up since the day it was built to now,” said MacKinnon.

Additionally, with City of Nanaimo and Nanaimo school district in the process of completing a deal for nearby lands encompassing Serauxmen, that could be another place for lighting.

While there is a chance the association might not get the money this time around, MacKinnon is optimistic.

“It’s highly likely that we’re in the positive,” said MacKinnon. “[The Jays foundation] really appreciated the honesty, going through the correct channels.”

The city was slated to contribute about $539,000. Coun. Ian Thorpe, chairman of Nanaimo’s parks and rec commission, said there would still be an appetite to look at supporting minor baseball, but the numbers would have to be examined.

“It would of course, depend on minor baseball being successful with their re-application, which I understand they’re very confident about, and then getting a report on how much it would cost and again, now we’re thinking of the lighting at Serauxmen Stadium, as opposed to Mariner Field, so there could be some cost differential there.”

Robert Witchel, Jays foundation executive director, said the association will be subject to the same process as anyone else applying.

If the association is successful, it would be notified by about mid April, said Witchel.



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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