September 29, 2020 – West Bend, WI – Leaders with the West Bend Baseball Association confirmed this week that a refurbishing of Carl Kuss Field will get underway shortly as financing is nearly complete.
“There’s still a passion for baseball and a passion for Regner Park,” said WBBA member Kraig Sadownikow. “We’ve gone through a few fits and starts over the past couple of years … but thanks to Craig Larsen, Prudence Pick Hway and others we’ve raised close to $1.3 million for a pretty exciting project.”
Although more money needed to be raised Sadownikow predicted the new field would be ready by the second quarter of 2021.
The big shift in the storyline was how much money was coming from Major League Baseball and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation.
Initial reports in mid-2018 indicated a $500,000 grant from the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. Private funds were going to be used to pay for the remainder of the project which was anticipated to be $1.4 million.
This week it was learned the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation would provide $150,000 and the rest of the money would be generated locally.
Larsen said it was hard for him to deal with the news about the MLB funding falling apart.
“I think it’s hard to say we lost something we never had,” said Sadownikow. “There’s no question the organization (WBBA) was counting on it but in true West Bend spirit we started knocking on more doors.”
Prudence Pick Hway said the goal was playing ball in West Bend. “We’re still getting some money from the Ripken Foundation and West Bend Mutual is making the refurbishing a primary project to support,” she said.
H&H Civil Construction from Collins, WI will be doing the work along with J.W. Industries out of Green Bay.
Construction is expected to get underway this fall. “We’d like to have the field ready for the start of the 2021 season,” said Pick Hway.
The infield will be made up of a synthetic turf with plans to install in the outfield as funding becomes available.
Updates will be completed in phases with the infield and new 500 person grandstand constructed first.
Phase 2 would include field lights and storage and Phase 3 would refurbish the restrooms.
Prudence Pick Hway, a longtime supporter of the WBBA, said it was a “bittersweet moment.”
Hway’s family has ties to baseball and Carl M. Kuss Field that go back to when the grandstand was first located at the Washington County Fairgrounds.
“My grandfather Carl Pick was a big supporter of baseball and he paid to have the grandstand moved, disassembled and reassembled from the Fairgrounds to where it is today at Regner Park,” Hway said.
