By Patrick Arnold
Please don’t forget about Friday night, April 26, at the Main Street Pub. Starting at 6 p.m. the Kimball Fire Department and the Express will hold a meat raffle. Following the meat raffle, a drawing will be held for the Baseball Field Fundraiser. Tickets still remain, stop by the Main Street Pub. The top prize given away will be $500 cash, with all other prizes being awesome fishing apparel. Tickets won’t last, so stop in at the Pub for “one” and get your ticket today. The Express would like to thank the Kimball Fire Depart-ment for all their time and for making the Baseball Field Fundraiser a reality. We can’t thank you enough.
In case people are wondering what plans are in store for the Kimball baseball field and what we needed a fundraiser for, read on. The Kimball ball park has been run down and kind of an eye sore since the flood back in the early 80s wiped it out and the high school team and town team didn’t play on it for five years. Members of the team and local community are planning to fix up the field.
First stage to take shape in the fall of 2002 is moving the outfield fence back to a more respectable depth. Dressing it up by having it 14 feet high from the left field line to left center where it will gradually slope down to 10 feet from left center to right center before it slopes back up to 14 feet in right center down to the right field line. Along with replacing the outfield fence, the outfield playing surface – which is very uneven in straight away center and virtually no grass in right will all be dug up and re-seeded. The new electronic scoreboard will be molded right into the outfield wall in right centerfield, the scoreboard has been sitting at Arnold’s Equipment for the past two or three years while planning has been taking place. The scoreboard was purchased by donations from various parties including the Clayton Greely family, Howard Pennertz Sr., the City of Kimball, the Express and the Kimball Area High School. This is the first project to take place, with others to follow such as revamping the infield, new dugouts, concession stand, sprinkler system, lights, press box, and a more fan-friendly bleacher setting.
These are big plans that will cost lots of money, and many volunteer hours. Of course, this will not happen overnight, and folks will probably not see a finished project for five to 10 years. With the changes to the ball park the Express are hoping to get future amateur region tournaments, and high school and Legion baseball tournaments and playoff games in Kimball. All of which will benefit the city and the city’s businesses by bringing in fans from neighboring towns for games, giving local businesses the opportunity to promote their establishments.
The hope and drive for all the changes is that the current players today can get a good thing going and give something back to the community for their continued support over the past years, and for generations to come that they will have a beautiful ball park to play on.
Thanks again to everyone who has been involved so far, and to anyone wanting to help out in the effort one way or another with donations or volunteer help, feel free to contact manager Tom Marquardt at (320) 398-6731.