ESTEVAN - Last month, long-time Estevan Minor Baseball volunteer Mel Murray appeared before Estevan city council, looking for financial support to help replace lighting at Panteluk Field at Lynn Prime Park.
Those lights were damaged in the powerful wind storm that struck southeast Saskatchewan in January.
Since that time, a couple of businesses have stepped forward with their support, which means minor ball won’t need a contribution from council.
PS Electric and Sky-Lift Services stepped forward, reducing the cost of purchase and replacement to $12,000. PS Electric helped minor ball get a good rate on the lighting, and Sky-Lift will supply the crane to complete the replacements when needed.
Murray noted that when he appeared before council, his belief was that the request would be referred to budget. But he says that he went back to council, saying that minor ball has a solution, and the lights should be good for three to five years.
There will be a need for support from the city further down the road.
“If anything, it was an eye opener that we should be looking at it for the future,” said Murray. “It’s not as critical as we thought it was to start with, because since PS Electric has found replacements for us, which helped us a lot.”
Murray noted that PS Electric installed the lights back in 2008, and owner Harvey King brought forward information that Murray did not have when he made the presentation to council.
“We were told that we could not buy these lights anymore, but Harvey knew a place where we could get them. As of right now, we’re going to fix the five lights that are broken, plus put new bulbs in all the rest. That’s the plan for the next year.”
It will amount to 44 bulbs. Panteluk Field will be the only one to get its lights replaced.
Minor ball has always had a great working relationship with the city of Estevan and with the local business community, he said.
“We’re continuously looking for support, and we’re out there, working hard to try to get all of our diamonds up to par. Once we do, people have to realize that these diamonds belong to the city. They don’t belong to minor ball. We have a good working relationship with the parks department.”
