By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
When Glasgow High School hosts Logan County for its first home game of the baseball season Friday evening, it’ll be doing so at a new version of Richardson Stadium.
The City of Glasgow, which owns the stadium that is part of Gorin Park, and others plan to mark the occasion of the “grand reopening” of the facility with a few special guests’ making a few brief comments and tossing out the first pitches.
The Scotties’ current head baseball coach, Cameron Garmon, as well as former coaches Sam Royse and Coy Meadows are among those invited for the event that begins at 5:30 p.m. Game time is 6 p.m. A handful or so of current and past assistant coaches also are expected to make appearances. They include Glasgow Councilman James “Happy” Neal, who is believed to have had the highest batting average at the school at least during Sam Royse’s time coaching and possibly still.
Mayor Henry Royse said the decades-old previous stadium that was destroyed by fire, apparently from an electrical issue, in July 2022 had been grandfathered in with regard to changing building codes, like those required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new stadium is much more user friendly, with rails, a ramp and more, he said, and the “pitiful” bathrooms have been replaced. The bleachers have shade structures over them to shield fans from some of the sun’s rays, and other features have improved as well.
Finishing touches were in progress at Richardson Stadium in Gorin Park in February. Melinda J. Overstreet / for Glasgow News 1
The process of getting to this point may have seemed like a neverending obstacle course to those who were accustomed to playing or watching ball games there and to the city officials.trying to get the facility rebuilt.
Henry Royse, who didn’t become mayor until 2023, said some of the biggest delays stemmed from the facts that the rebuild time came toward the end of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the work also needed to be timed in such a manner that it didn’t interrupt baseball season for the Scotties, who use Sam Royse Field at Richardson Stadium as their home field.
“Nobody would bid it,” the mayoor said. “So here we are with zero bids to do it, so we had to – the law allows us to turn around and piecemeal it, so to speak. So we had to find people who were willing to do various parts of the job.”
As time went on, the city learned that the lights were also damaged, so those had to be repaired so nighttime games could occur, even with temporary facilities, he said. In the past several weeks, additional problems with the lights were discovered, and they were replaced just last week with LED bulbs that don’t require ballasts and won’t be as difficult to replace.
The pavement on the driveway immediately surrounding the ballfield had gotten in pretty rough shape and was in serious need of resurfacing, and the handicapped-access ramp from the sidewalk down to the driveway/parking area was higher than the paved surface, creating a gap equating to a step. The city’s street department had used pothole patching material so the bottom of the ramp, at least, and the driveway would be flush, because asphalt plants were not expected to open until next month. Just this week, though, the asphalt plant opened and work was occurring Wednesday to get the driveway properly resurfaced, Royse said, sharing the photos he’d been sent showing the work.
“I’m pretty excited. You hate to do something like this and it be halfway done,” the mayor said.
The city received $246,768 from its insurance company for the structures, and Royse said he has no idea how they reached that figure and he was disappointed with it. The city has paid another $829,484 on top of that to build for the stadium and related costs, for a grand total of $1,076,252.
One of the other questions that arose during the interim since the fire was whether the Scotties were committed to continuing to use the field. If not, the stadium wouldn’t necessarily have to meet the same standards. That also raised the issue of whether the school system should, could or would share the cost of rebuilding.
After several months of back-and-forth discussions, it was determined that the school system could not contribute to a capital project on land it doesn’t own, but it could and would participate in a lease agreement, which would indirectly help the city recup some of its costs. As part of that agreement, Glasgow Independent Schools committed to using the field.for at least the next five years, the mayor said.
The ball team and coaches have traditionally care for the field itself, and that is expected to continue.
