Memorial Park stadium moving forward

Progress is being made in construction of a new backstop and grandstand at Memorial Park, home field for the Glacier Twins Legion baseball team.

A community baseball stadium has existed on the northeast corner of the 10-acre city-owned Memorial Park since 1936. The Twins' organization leased the stadium from the city for about 40 years, and numerous capital improvements were made, including lighting, irrigation, dugouts, a picnic pavilion, rest rooms and other facilities.

A civil engineer, however, determined that the grandstand was unsafe in 2002, and it was torn down that summer. A construction agreement with the city for a new grandstand was drafted and approved in 2002, but the Twins organization was unable to raise sufficient funds and the agreement was terminated.

Now that fundraising has seen some success, the old agreement has been resurrected and amended as necessary. The Whitefish City Council approved the amended construction agreement for the project during their May 17 meeting.

The Twins organization must hire an architect and engineer for the project, submit all plans ahead of time to the city council and the city's Architectural Review Committee and Parks Board, and prove they have sufficient funds with a 10 percent contingency and liability insurance.

When completed, the stadium will be owned by the Twins organization, but the city will continue to own the land. The city council agreed to waive the $990 architectural review fee on Jan. 4.

According to Bob Lockman, the chairman of the Stadium Grandstand Task Force, the project consists of two phases. The first phase includes the backstop and a covered roof, which should be completed by the end of May at a cost of $152,000.

Phase 2 includes seating for 900, two dressing rooms, a lobby, rest rooms and a concession stand. Work on the $750,000 second phase will begin after the season ends.

The organization plans to hire eight subcontractors and no general contractor to save money. Lockman said they have about $70,000 in cash donations and $75,000 in in-kind donations.

Cash donations include $10,000 from the Plum Creek Foundation and $2,500 from the BNSF Railway Foundation. In-kind donations include $30,508 from Jay Sandalin, owner of Sanaris Enterprises, which included demolition and removal of the old structure and excavation and backhoe work, and about $30,000 from Western Building Center.

In 2007, Iowa-based Musco Lighting Co. provided six new dark-skies compliant light fixtures with poles to light the field at no cost. The market value of the equipment was about $250,000, and the Twins organization was responsible for the cost of the 14-foot deep concrete foundations and setting the equipment in place.