HEDDY SOROUR
Continuing with the rehabilitation of the RJ McLaren Ball Diamond, the Town of Carleton Place is preparing to install a new fence this year ahead of the ball season. Last year, the town worked on the infield, replacing the hard, compacted crushed stone with a baseball mix. The fencing is a continuation of that work.
“The work at the ballpark was designed to take place over two years. This would allow us not to interrupt the users’ season by trying to accomplish everything at once,” Mayor Toby Randell told Hometown News.
The ball diamond is a well-used town asset, primarily for softball and lob ball leagues, but is also used by the town at times as an extension for events held at Riverside Park. The high school also uses the space on occasion for physical education classes, Randell explained.
“The diamond is used four to five nights per week and on weekends for tournaments,” said Joanne Henderson, manager of recreation and culture.
Built in the late ’70s, the McLaren Ball Diamond has been in constant use since, Henderson said. The existing fencing is more than 40 years old, just four feet high, and was showing its age.
“A six-foot chain link fence will be installed with yellow premium-grade poly cap. The backstop will be re-fenced, and mesh will be added to the top of the backstop,” Henderson told Hometown News.
The new fencing will cost just under $68,500. The town had originally budgeted $50,000 for the project.
“The prices came in higher than what we had budgeted,” Henderson told council at the committee of the whole on March 25. “We were fortunate to recover some funds from participating groups that did some fundraising.”
The Carleton Place Civitan Club, the Arena Staff Association, and a group of ball users raised a total of $5,411 through various initiatives. Added to the original budget, this brings the total to $55,411, requiring a budget deviation of just over $13,000. That amount will be drawn from parkland reserves.
The town received two bids for the work and will award the contract to Troy Property Maintenance—a company the town has not previously worked with.
“We had a recommendation from the Township of Lanark Highlands. [Troy] had done some projects for them, and they highly recommended the company,” said Henderson.
According to Henderson, there’s a bit of a time crunch to get the fencing installed. The area will be used as a staging ground for construction upgrades to the Water Filtration Plant, and the fence must be completed before that work begins.
The only other bid came from Cavanagh Construction, at more than $80,000.
“Under the current circumstances, with everything coming in more expensive than anticipated, the users have contributed funds, so this is another collaboration that gets things done,” Randell said. “This is an asset that’s heavily used, and it’s not a large sum. So, it’s a good expenditure at this time.”
