Administration- Jerome Krieger, Senior Parks and Recreation Manager
Title
Title
Naming of the Jim Peterson Park Batting Cages and Bullpen Area to Rick Fanning Practice Facility
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Background
Rick Fanning was a board member with the Blaine Area Traveling Baseball Association for 15 years. Rick was an advocate for improving the Blaine Baseball fields and facilities. In 2014 Rick transformed Cloverleaf park’s field from a skin aglime infield into a grass baseball infield. He got a crew of volunteers to work on transforming the field into a game field for players 11 and under. When he was finished with that project, he focused on improving all the mound and home plate areas along with improving the tarps on all our baseball fields. He worked with city staff and the other baseball associations to make sure that all the fields had rebuilt mounds and new tarps to cover them. He did this because he knew how important it was not to have rain outs with all the games being played in Blaine.
Rick’s passion carried over to Jim Peterson Park, where he wanted to improve the storage shed. Rick researched sheds being sold in Ham Lake on Highway 65. He got quotes for a shed that had a garage door on each end so you could store a Gator in the shed and be able to drive it right out. After we partnered to purchase the shed, he turned his work to a new batting cage area and bullpen area. Rick worked countless hours to lay out the dimensions of the batting cage, cut out the sod, put in the posts for the cages and spread the aglime. Once he finished all the earth work, he needed to run the cable to hang the netting for the cages to get them operational. The final piece to the puzzle was constructing the pitching areas for players to practice pitching and work on their skills. There is no doubt that our city’s baseball program has benefited from all the contributions that Rick has made to our community. For this reason, staff is recommending that the Jim Peterson batting and pitching areas be named the Rick Fanning Practice Facility.
Staff Recommendation
By motion, recommend the naming of the Jim Peterson batting cages and bullpen area to the Rick Fanning Practice Facility.