A baseball field is planned for Page Middle School, but it is still not known when the diamond will be put in place, the Gloucester School Board was told in its monthly meeting Tuesday at the T.C. Walker Education Center.

Gloucester Education Association president and Page teacher Brian Teucke told the board that coaches and parents were confused after a county supervisor said the field was funded in the current fiscal year’s budget during the supervisors’ joint meeting with the school board on Feb. 25.

Several ball players, parents and coaches attended that meeting to request the field and were puzzled to hear that it had been funded, yet they had seen no plans and no work had been initiated to put the field in place.

With no field at Page, players had been practicing at the old Page site on Route 17 on a field they said was less than desirable, and some described as dangerous, and being bused to and from there cuts into their practice time.

School division superintendent Walter Clemons said his staff was “shooting for the spring of 2021 or 2022” for the new field to be ready. Clemons went on to explain that when Page was built six years ago, the cost of the baseball field was at $200,000. Budget cuts eliminated the field at that time.

Since then, Clemons said the cost has risen to $500,000, and only $400,000 was budgeted for the project. He said the hope was that staff can leverage other projects at the site, including the planned construction of a new transportation center, bus parking and fuel pump relocation, to get closer to full funding for the field.

Clemons said he and his staff are still awaiting final cost estimates for the transportation center move to Page from the old Page site. Currently, an architectural firm is working on the project but has yet to deliver cost estimates.
Clemons said he would have to check with other staff members regarding the condition of the practice field at the old Page site, but said grounds foreman Jimmy Viars had been working with Page principal Patricia McMahon on providing an adequate practice field.

McMahon, who was present at Tuesday’s meeting, addressed the topic. She said a portable backstop had arrived at the school that day and she hoped to have other equipment in place soon that will allow Viars and his crew to temporarily transform the field hockey field at Page into a baseball field.

The portable backstop will allow it to be moved around on the hockey field to reduce the wear and tear from the baseball practice activity. Page’s home baseball games will continue to be played at Peasley Middle School.