Since work started over the summer, a major transformation of the Marshalltown Little League complex on South 12th Street has been underway with the goal of addressing pressing safety issues and putting local youth on a more level playing field — literally — with their competitors in other communities.

Thanks to donations from a wide variety of Marshalltown area businesses and individuals as well as in-kind donations of time and labor, work is progressing steadily with the goal to wrap up as much as possible before winter weather rolls in and puts a halt to construction. As Little League Board Member Zach Wahl spoke to the T-R on Friday afternoon, workers from Top Notch Tree Service were busy working on trees, digging foul poles and working on the batting cage, and on Monday, a crew from El Toro Construction was busy pouring concrete for the poles.

“Over this next month, you’re gonna see some foul poles probably go up. You’re gonna see some backstops get fixed. Again, we don’t have enough money to do it all, but with what we have, we’re doing the best we can,” Wahl said. “A lot of this is all safety issues that we’re dealing with. Our next big goal is lights, and I think it’s attainable. We’ve been looking at some options, how to get some lights, get three or four of these fields possibly lit up.”

Currently, two of the six fields have operable lights, but both sets are from the 1970s and considered badly outdated and dangerous. Lighting and restrooms are the two areas most in need of funding at present, with most of the other items either partially or fully funded. With Marshalltown native Jason Clement’s company currently conducting a sports facilities study for the community, Wahl said the little league board hopes to fit into those plans somehow.

“We have a bigger vision in mind of what we’d like to see as a community, but right now, we’ve got to take care of safety hazards,” Wahl said.

The goal is to have four of the fields renovated and ready for play next summer, and Wahl was quick to shout out the generosity of those who have donated to the cause thus far. On Monday, fellow board member Anthony Everman spoke about the improvements to the batting cage and how he feels they will benefit the Little League’s ultimate mission.

“I think the overall goal for us is to get participation up, and we’ve been able to do that so far. We’re looking to expand on that, and I think having people involved, not only people that are volunteering but also people that have a passion for baseball and helping spread that love of baseball on is important. And having somewhere to play that they’re proud of, but also it’s a safe place for them to come and play and then improving on that, ramping that up with the coaching portion of it with coaches like Steve Hanson and Allen Mann involved and all the dads that are volunteering, it’s a big deal for us,” Everman said. But creating opportunities to play travel baseball in Marshalltown without leaving town within our rec program is very important to us, and we’ve been able to establish that with the first section of our three-tiered system here and then (we’re) going to expand it here in the next month or so to having a rec program that has local games, so they’re gonna play during the middle of the week and then our traditional rec program where the kids are playing each other that are from Marshalltown.”

Like Wahl, Everman expressed strong gratitude for the community support and hopes to see more in the months and years to come.

“I think that’s very awesome for our community to show their passion for baseball and just our youth in general,” he said.

To learn more about Marshalltown Little League/Marshalltown Baseball Club, visit https://www.mtownlittleleague.org/. Donation checks can be mailed to Marshalltown Little League, PO Box 1511, Marshalltown, IA 50158.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com