Quite a few people seemed to be wondering what鈥檚 going on with the ball diamonds out by the Humboldt Uniplex. There are concerns that with all of the digging that had been going on out there, the fields would completely flood in the spring. The City, however, said they have the situation in hand.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been bringing in fill (soil mixture) for the grounds,鈥� said Darrell Lessmeister, director of community and leisure services for the City of Humboldt. 鈥淚ronically, the reason we鈥檙e bringing in the fill is because when we do start development, we want to have proper drainage.鈥�
Apparently, when the field was first designed, it wasn鈥檛 done with proper drainage and so instead of the water draining into ditches, it just sat on the field and created large puddles. Anyone who wanted to use the field would have to wait until the water sank into the ground, evaporated, or was manually pumped out by the City.
With the record amounts of rain and moisture the city has been experiencing lately, the City was constantly being forced to pump out the extra water, which cost quite a bit. With fill, they鈥檒l be able to build up the land to create ditches and thus develop a proper drainage system.
As such, it was fortunate for the City when an opportunity came from an adjacent property to acquire some of that necessary fill. All they had to pay for was its transportation.
鈥淲e wanted to take advantage of the fill for an economical cost,鈥� said Lessmeister. 鈥�(Now that the fill is on the field), we鈥檒l be bringing in equipment over the summer so that it鈥檚 leveled out and there won鈥檛 be any hills or mountains.
Lessmeister said the existing ball diamonds will still be usable over the summer and the City will continue to pump out any extra flooding or moisture as usual.聽 Until such time, however, the soil mixture is frozen into lumps and so they鈥檒l have to wait until it thaws before they can start flattening it out.
