The Wright City Board of Aldermen approved a bid to purchase new infield dirt for one of the ballfields at Ruge Park at a cost of $6,700 at their March 27 meeting.
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The Wright City Board of Aldermen approved a bid to purchase new infield dirt for one of the ballfields at Ruge Park at a cost of $6,700 at their March 27 meeting.
Parks Director Stuart Bruning said this was the first step in the process and that he hoped to purchase additional dirt for the remaining fields, but this was all the parks department had funds for at this time.
He said the introduction of the new dirt would decrease maintenance costs over time as well as improve drainage on the fields to help prevent rainouts.
“This would enable us to regrade our fields and also have less rainouts of games, which would obviously make our season go much smoother,” said Bruning.
The bid will cover the purchase and transport of 50 tons of a special compound of man-made dirt used in baseball fields to improve drainage.
“It’s going to drain well, it’s going to absorb moisture. So that’s the specific reason where you want to go with the material that is designed and made for that,” said Bruning.
While the board did approve the purchase, Bruning first faced questions on why it was necessary, what his plans were for the future and why they should be improving old ballfields when the construction on a new park is already underway.
Bruning said while the purchase was technically over his department’s budget line item for the dirt, he would be able to pull dollars from both the Ruge Park improvement fund and the ground and maintenance fund to cover the difference.
He added that the new dirt would decrease annual costs and estimated the new dirt could last for up to 15 years if maintained properly.
Alderman Ramiz Hakim asked why the city should be spending money to improve existing baseball diamonds when they will be adding four new ones with the completion of the 62-acre park on the north side of town.
“These are fields that are going to be used, no matter what for practices, for the foreseeable future,” said Bruning. “That’s always something that’s going to be going on.”
He continued saying currently, the only other ballfields in the city are the ones between Wright City Middle School and Wright City West Elementary and they will still need the space for overflow games.
The fields at the new park are also far from completion and Bruning added there will still be a need for more space until they are completed.
Plans for the new park were approved in 2018, and although development has been slow, contractor Karrenbrock Construction is expected to begin concrete work this spring.
Since that park is still far from completion, Bruning, and the board felt the purchase was justified.
“I would also say we’re at least a year plus past having fields and we have games there now, and if this allows us to have less rainouts, that’s going to be a better experience for people that are participating in our league,” said Bruning.
