Saugeen Shores council has put together a fundraising committee for the Lamont Sports Park, which is currently being constructed on the south end of Port Elgin.
Phase one of the baseball park design includes four diamonds with irrigation and lighting, connecting paths to the Saugeen Rail Trail, temporary washrooms (to be enhanced later) and parking. Phase-one has a $5.3 million dollar price tag.
The fundraising committee includes some councillors, Town staff and representatives from minor baseball as well as men’s and women’s slo-pitch and fastball leagues, among others.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau says, “We had a great group of folks earlier this year and late last year doing a fundraising strategy for future phases of the park.”
He says now, the committee can start raising money to build phase-two.
Charbonneau notes, “They’ve set a very aggressive fundraising target, they hope to raise $1 million toward the next phase of the park,” adding, “It’s certainly in excess of $2 million to construct the next set of ball diamonds and other amenities.”
He says, “I know they’re going to be going out and doing the quiet ask in the next few months and see if we can generate some funds to keep moving that development forward.”
Reports from Town staff explain the demand on baseball diamond time has been high, and projections show it will only grow alongside the population. They estimate population growth at an annual rate of 1.28 per cent for the next ten years. Charbonneau says, “We have just a huge, and growing interest in baseball in our community.”
Back in 2016, a report said the Town was in a deficit of three unlit ball diamonds. The Town applied for grants through the highly competitive Investing In Canadian Infrastructure Program for the Lamont Sports Park as well as a proposed YMCA, but was turned down in 2020.
The entire project is expected to cost about $12 million over the next ten years. In 2019, the Lamont Sports Park was the winner of Kraft Heinz Project Play — netting the town $250,000 towards that cost.
“It’s really exciting now to see it under construction,” says Charbonneau adding, those who would like to see it can walk up to the rail trail behind Walmart in Port Elgin and take a look over the bluff, he says,”You can get a really good bird’s-eye-view from there.”
Charbonneau says the hope is that possibly late in 2022, or first thing in 2023, the diamonds will be ready for use, “We have to leave it for some time to let the grass establish and the surface harden.”
He says more baseball diamonds are planned for future phases which could possibly include canteens and other facilities to support the baseball park along with trees that will be planted and trails that will be built.
The goal is to have eight baseball diamonds built over the next decade.
Charbonneau notes, “The first phase gets some diamonds built and gets access into the park and also gets an accessible playground built, but there’s much more to do after that to really fully realize the opportunity to connect it to the community and to build it out and make it the beautiful park that we know it’s going to be.”