As the funds continue to be invested into the heavily utilized Bridgeport Recreation Complex, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is making sure its existing facilities are seeing a little bit of love as well. Right now, tens of thousands of dollars are being invested at another heavily used venue – Bridgeport City Park.

 

According to Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth, two contractors are doing work to the baseball and softball fields situated at City Park. And the work is nearly complete.

 

“This is a continuation of improvements that have taken place in recent years. This year, we’ve taken the old chain link fence off of both fields as both needed replaced,” said Shuttleworth. “We have tried to patch it before, but it was time to make a major investment.”

 

The investment involves more than just removing the old chain link fence. While P&R staff was removing the fence, Specialty Group, Inc., out of Bridgeport came in and power washed all the fence posts, including the structure that makes up the backstop, and then followed that up by priming the posts. The posts are now jet black and have a brand new look to them.

 

“The backstop structures and some of the posts were rusty and you had some lose material that would flake off. The final black material that was put on encapsulates the material underneath it, very similar to work done on old cars,” said Shuttleworth. “The rust eventually work with this primer to harden up underneath and the rusting concerns are eliminated.”

 

With both fields painted black, another local company – Neel’s Fencing – game in Tuesday and began putting up new fencing around both fields. The fencing in question is black, vinyl-coated fencing that will have the red protection caps put back on top of them.

 

“It’s what we have at the Rec Complex,” said Shuttleworth. “We wanted the theme to be consistent. At the same time we do this, we also have staff doing cleanup and basic maintenance. We want this looking the best it can look when play begins next year.”

 

The moist recent upgrades come on the heels of work done recently for the two fields. Last year, the city did laser grading of the fields, which produced an immediate upgrade.

 

“The elevated surfaces really increased the usage of the field this past spring after a weather event. You had less rainouts and the playing conditions were much better,” Shuttleworth said. “It also didn’t require as much work for the volunteers that utilize those fields to get them read. That project worked out extremely well.”

 

“We’ve had this push for improvements at other facilities to have the same high standard that’s in place at the Recreation Complex,” he said. “That’s only possible with the backing of City Council and the administration as they’re the ones that provide the avenue and the approval for funding these projects.”

 

The Specialty Group’s work cost $8,772. Neel’s Fencing’s cost comes to $11,816.90. Funds for both came from the Capital Improvement Fund.

 

Editor's Note: Top and bottom photo show Parks and Rec Staff doing their part in the current project, while Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth looks over some of the recently cleaned up and primed steel poles.