Spring Valley council hears ballpark plan altered

Spring Valley children may soon have a new place to play ball, even if it doesn’t look right away the way the City Council had originally planned it.

City Engineer Mike Richetta informed Monday the Spring Valley City Council the original plan for a pair of baseball diamonds and the associated out buildings to be constructed on a 5-acre property north of John F. Kennedy School – an effort expected to cost roughly $3.4 million – had to be trimmed back because of a limit on the size of the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development grant available.

Richetta said the maximum for that round of grants is $600,000 and requires a commitment from the city to match that amount to be approved.

The engineer detailed for the council some of the changes he made to make the plan viable, such as eliminating the all-weather turf in favor of grass or clay, eliminating the lighting for night games, leaving an access road gravel instead of paved, taking out maintenance buildings, etc.

Those cuts brought it down to a reduced $1.255 million.

That figure would allow for two complete diamonds the appropriate size for intermediate players, Little League or junior high-aged baseball and softball athletes, with fences at about 225 feet from home plate.

Spring Valley children for that age range now have to travel to neighboring cities to play as there is no diamond for their level in town.

“I think we can have the two diamonds, the walking path and the parking,” Richetta said. “There were some things eliminated, but there will be two really nice fields for the kids to play on.”

Representatives of the North Central Illinois Council of Governments, which helps communities apply for OSLAD grants, said the city would be able to apply for future grants that would allow some of the eliminated aspects of the original plan to be performed at a later date using subsequent grants.

Richetta said there are no developments of the land adjacent to the proposed new diamonds, so ideally the project could one day be doubled to four diamonds, if future grant applications are approved. That would likely require at least another 5 acres, he said, but it would make the complex more suitable for hosting tournaments and other events.

The NCICG reps added the deadline for applying for the grant is Sept. 13 and encouraged them to include in the application at least 10 letters of support from the council and members of the community.

Also on Monday, Mayor Melanie Malooley-Thompson made several appointments to city boards: Jerry Carls to the Police Pension Board (expires 2026), Jane Weberski, Nancy McNally and Rich Savitch to the Richard A. Mautino Library Board (all expire 2027), Jarad Crowther to the Zoning Board of Appeals (expires 2029) and Dave Argubright to the Board of Fire and Police (expires 2027).

In other action, the council:

• approved moving the first of the two September meeting from Monday, Sept. 2, which is Labor Day, to Tuesday, Sept. 3.
• heard from City Clerk Becky Hansen that petitions for the position of alderperson are available at her office for anyone considering running for the post.
• awarded the contract for the city’s sidewalk program to the low bidder, Cruz Construction.
• awarded the contract for the heating and air conditioning for the city’s community center to the low bidder, Chapman Sheet Metal.
• approved the extended warranties for machinery at the waste water treatment plant.