The Clinton County Youth Baseball/Softball League has joined forces with the Mountain View Park Board to give the park a bit of a face lift.

In recent months, both boards have come together to work on all the baseball and softball areas in order to “level the playing field” by bringing in dirt and sod to resurface areas of the fields.

Now, CCYBSL President Chris Marlow is heading up the efforts to construct new dugouts for all three fields.

“We presented the idea to the park board due to the fact the roofs are coming off, insides falling, mold and safety factors of being able to see through them once the new ones are complete,” Marlow said. “Might be easier for patrols now and make the park a little safer. It might keep people from being up in there. You name it and they’ve found it in the dugouts.”

According to Marlow, building new dugouts is a safety concern all the way around. Not only does it possibly keep people out of them during the nights, but structurally the old ones were falling apart.

“There are too many kids out here who are playing that need something that’s not molded and falling apart,” Marlow said. “You can check, I don’t really know, but I’d say these dugouts were built 15 or 20 years ago.”

Jerry Ridge has been contracted to build the dugouts and Marlow said he would have already been done with them if the weather had been better.

All but one field will use the existing foundation that was previously set with the old dugouts. The exception, the softball field, and according to CCYBSL board member Todd Messer, they have extended the dugouts for the softball fields to help with drainage.

“The softball dugouts will be extended pretty close to eight feet,” Messer said. “We are extending that to take care of the drainage problem where water comes off the blacktop. Now the water should hit the back of the dugout and go to the curb and end up in the drain or it will back to the other drain. It’s going to fix the washing problem we have across this field.”

The new dugouts will be four cinder blocks tall with a stone face and a concrete bench inside. The top half of the dugouts will be wrapped in chain link fence with a blue roof and trimmed out in white.

“It will allow air to come through and allow visibility at night,” Messer said. “It will also make it easier to maintain and clean. There will also be a dugout entrance from inside the field and outside the field.”

Messer said with all the renovations combined, both boards have put around $60,000 into the park.

“We are shooting to have two of the fields done before next Thursday,” Messer said. “Middle school baseball has a game next Thursday and the softball team has a game next Friday and the dugouts will be playable by then. We might not have all the block up by then, but we will have all the metal up and the fence in front.”

Marlow said he fully expects the dugouts to be completely finished by opening day, which is Saturday, April 13.

The CCYBSL have held one signup so far, with plenty of time left to sign kids up for the summer.

“We are wanting to play by the 15th of April,” Marlow said. “We have this coming Saturday and the following Monday left for signups and that’s it.”

Signups are scheduled for March 16 and 18 from 9-12 a.m. and 4:30-7:30 respectively, at Mountain View Park in the upstairs office/conference room.

Other renovations include new bases for the baseball and softball fields, and the baseball field has the capability of playing 60 feet, 70 feet and 90 feet bases.

“It looks a whole lot better than it did,” Marlow said.