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New press box, concession stand built at Royals baseball diamond
Major improvements have been made at the Mountain Home Tigers/Royals baseball field at Eastside Park this summer.
The renovation started with the tearing down of the old press box after the last home Tiger baseball game the end of April, and John Cristobal, Jr. and C-2 Construction began building a combined press box and concession stand building that was officially dedicated at the Mountain Home High School Alumni Baseball Game on June 20.
Most recent work has included fencing off the baseball field area.
Mountain Home Tiger head baseball coach Travis DeVore is pleased to see how quickly the facility has come together.
"There are a couple of people in particular -- Andy Anderson and John Cristobal, Jr. -- that have just got behind this and just pushed it through, and they raised money, they got other people involved to do things at an affordable price for us, and those two, especially, did amazing things to get this done. I never would have thought we could get it done this quickly, let alone for the price that John was able to put together for us."
DeVore was appreciative and thankful for all the businesses that helped make it happen.
"We're thankful to all the different businesses that contributed to this, and all the individuals, because there were a lot of monetary gifts that went into it, and then there were a number of construction businesses that donated various aspects of the project, or did things at a discount price so that we could get this done in a hurry, and do it in a way that was professional and really improves the facility, which, now we do have an enclosed facility, which is big for us in the future, because we want to host some more tournaments here, and that's the first thing that they look at is what your facility looks like, and that's good for the community, it's good for our kids, and good for our program as a whole, so we're excited about that!"
The concession stand was named The Walborn Grill in honor of Chester A. "Soapy" Walborn, for all the efforts he has done, monetarily, as well as the many years of coaching the youth of Mountain Home.
"Soapy Walborn gave a very nice sum of money to help get this going, as did his son, Jack Walborn, who have been involved in baseball in Mountain Home for many, many years," said DeVore.
"We can't thank them enough! They're a big reason for why this was even able to get done.
"Along with them, I want to thank Andy Anderson, who's been a long-time donor into the program, and all the programs of Mountain Home High School, and he was a big influence in it, and obviously, John Cristobal, putting together the plans, and C-2 Construction coming down and overseeing the whole thing, and getting other people on board with its total group effort, and in a short amount of time, our facility improves, expeditiously, so we're very happy for the program, but then also very proud of all the people, and thankful for all they put into it."
Besides the Walborns and LPL Financial Servies, Andy Anderson and John Cristobal and C-2 Construction, DeVore wanted to thank Lane's Appliances, Radio Shack of Mountain Home, Ratliff Law Offices, KMHI Radio, Liercke Construction, Axtell Painting, Master Electric, Grubb Brothers Art, Overhead Door of Mountain Home, Phil Rainey and Mountain Home High School Maintenance, Wal-Mart, Hardrock Excavating, Idaho Concrete, Paige Mechanical Group, Jim's Lumber, Ron and Ray Liercke, Mountain Home Parks and Recreation, Idaho Masonry, Aguirre Pest and Lawn, Rick and Trudy Lee, John and Cherie Bitrick, and Rick and Marsha Baker.
Coach DeVore indicated that the improvements are phase one of the improvements they expect to do to the facilities.
"There's a lot of things we still want to do. Our region hosts the state Legion tournament in two years, and in six months we have to decide whether we want to put a bid in for it, and there are some other things we want to get done to show the state that we have one of those facilities to be considered. The good side to growing up in southern Idaho for our young men that come through the program is there are a number of great baseball facilities that our kids get to play on, and we're trying to get ours up to that level, and so we've got to prove to other communities and the state as a whole, that we have one of those facilities, and we're getting there. This is a huge step forward and we're not done yet, that's for sure!"