Marathon board members tour new ballpark facility
By Casey Krautkramer
Members of the Marathon Village Board toured the new baseball/softball complex on CTH NN as part of a special meeting last week Wednesday. Building contractor PGA, Inc. of Weston bulldozed dirt between the fields and press box while village administrator Steve Cherek showed board members the current progress and items that are still needed, including supplies for the concession stand and a public address system for the press box. Concrete will eventually be poured between the fields and concession stand/press box.
Cherek said the three baseball/softball fields will likely be ready for games in June of next year. He said it will be up to Marathon’s youth baseball teams if they want to purchase a portable pitching mound
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that is estimated to cost between $1,800 and $3,000. From his experience coaching youth baseball in Mosinee, Cherek is recommending the large portable mound at $3,000 so there is enough room for pitchers to land their plant foot without getting injured.
He told village board members that the infield on the main field needs to be regraded because water is currently running into the dugouts. Cherek said village workers will build benches for the dugouts. Board members walked through the outfield of the main field and saw there were a lot of weeds. Once the grass roots take a firmer hold in the ground, Cherek said the grass should choke out the weeds.
Cherek also showed village board members a hole in the dirt on the warning track in front of the outfield fence of the main field which was caused by water runoff. He said the village has material to fill in the hole on the warning track, and the water runoff will no longer occur once the grass roots are more entrenched in the outfield.
The village board then met at the municipal center and voted to accept the lowest bid of $383,228 from PGA, Inc. to construct a new sidewalk on 4th Street, between East Street and Spring Valley Drive, as part of the pedestrian trail along CTH NN that will go underneath a tunnel to the baseball/softball complex. Cherek said he was pleased to see the bid was much lower than the $519,200 grant the village qualified for from the state.
Cherek said it’s now possible PGA will begin constructing the sidewalks this fall, since its equipment is already at the new softball/baseball complex because PGA is also the contractor for the new St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church on that site.
The village board also voted to pay $158,000 to Musco Sports Lighting for the installation of light poles with lights for the main field, which is between the other two fields at the new baseball/softball complex. Cherek said the village received monetary donations for the light poles and lights for the main field.
In the future, Cherek said the village will just add lights onto these existing light poles on the main field to be used for the fields on each side of it, so that no concrete would need to be broken up to add light poles for these other two fields.
Board members also gave Cherek the goahead to send notices to the municipalities covered by the Marathon Fire Department, letting them know about the department’s proposed 2025 budget.
IN PROGRESS - Marathon City board members Mark Ahrens, left, and Barb Parlier, right, tour the grounds of the village’s new ballpark facility, which is still under construction. Also pictured is clerk Anita Krautkramer. STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER
