Right around the corner

It all started with an idea and a dream nearly two years ago.

That dream is just over a month away from becoming a reality.

The Jay County Baseball Club’s (JCBC) new facility, the Clubhouse, is nearly finished with phase one and is preparing to open between six to eight weeks from now.

“I think everybody’s been really excited,” said JCBC president Todd Farr. “We’ve done this right and we haven’t held back. We made sure that we got good equipment and everything to make this place successful, especially baseball in Jay County at the end of the day.”

The group started fundraising in August before taking out a $420,000 loan and purchasing a building on county road 500 West to convert into its vision for The Clubhouse. 

Then they received a one-time match of $175,000 approved by Jay County Commissioners from wind farm economic development dollars in October.

The club got access to the building in January, the same month when members of the board attended the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Dallas, where they got in contact with vendors for turf and other equipment to get the renovation process underway.

Farr mentioned that not only were they able to find all of the equipment they were looking for, such as turf, netting, balls, pitching machines, screens and more, but they also saved money purchasing the equipment at the convention.

Coming back from Dallas, the club just had to wait on the equipment’s arrival and get to work.

“Things may have not have happened as fast originally, but they have just taken off,” Farr said. “It’s awesome and exciting, but it’s also a bit nerve wracking because we are just around the corner from this thing opening.”

As of right now, phase one is nearly done, with the turf installed, nets set up and the front office area completed. The scheduling software is also being troubleshooted. The club is still waiting on a few systems to be put in place to be compliant with fire code.

“We have to have the pull alarms, the strobing alarms and those kinds of things to be fire code compliant,” JCBC secretary Josh Atkinson said. “Right now, that’s looking to be about six to eight weeks out.”

Along with needing to meet fire code, JCBC is also vetting companies to put in an alarm system to The Clubhouse.

Needing to wait for the equipment to arrive in Jay County and for the fire and security systems has had its benefits for JCBC.

“It was actually kind of a blessing these things took as long as they did,” Atkinson said. “We had time to get it painted before nets arrived. We got some code compliance stuff done before we got the nets and turf here. Now we have some time to troubleshoot until we become code compliant.”

Andrew Myers takes cuts in the Jay County Baseball Club’s new indoor facility, The Clubhouse. JCBC has had a few athletes come in to make sure equipment is working properly before opening to the public within the next two months. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Some of the trouble shooting the club has had to do involve needing to add an extra door in the area with the cages, having a wire pop out of the netting system and finding a way to get the metal poles that hold up the net into the building as they weren’t a part of the initial plan.

Another advantage of needing to wait for code compliance is an advancement into phase two, particularly in the form of HitTrax, a feedback device that gives data about your swing and the result of a struck ball. The technology is both used for training purposes, while also having game modes to simulate games.

JCBC already has the technology set up, and the club made sure it was easy enough for kids to use without needing assistance from staff.

Other parts of phase two, such as a classroom and golf simulator, will be implemented as funds are available while JCBC plays off its loan. The club recently received $75,000 from the Portland Foundation and has applied for other grants as well.

While phase two won’t be completed for a while, the club is excited for the progress that has been made and the prospect of opening up after nearly two years of brainstorming, planning and executing.

“We’re getting there and it’ll be here before you know it,” Farr said. “Our goal is to get this thing functional so we can get people in here.”