IRVINE : OK for Softball Park Project Is Sought

There aren’t any cornfields near Alton Athletic Park.

But city officials hope to transform the park into a Field of Dreams for baseball and softball enthusiasts with a series of improvements that would bring batting cages, a scoreboard and bleachers to the Alton Parkway facility.

The City Council will vote on the first phase of the project at its Tuesday meeting.

With council approval, the city will spend as much as $28,000 to add two batting cages and batting machines to the park, which already has four baseball diamonds.

The project will require workers to trench through the baseball field with wires so that the batting machines will have a power source, said Ronald Morgan, associate engineer for the city. Officials plan to have the machines operating by Feb. 8.

The city also hopes to install by the end of March a concrete slab behind the batting cages to serve as a foundation for aluminum bleachers.

A scoreboard and a scorer’s table might also be built.

Morgan said the improvements correspond with an increase in the popularity of softball. Among those likely to use the batting machines are some of the city’s numerous softball tournament leagues, Morgan said.

“We are creating the creature comforts,” he said.