The Community Places grant awarded to Seine River Minor Ball covers only a small portion of the cost to light up two of the baseball diamonds at the Iles Des Chenes Ball Park.

Alex Grenier, Special Project Coordinator for Seine River Minor Ball says these would be the first two diamonds in southeastern Manitoba with the ability to play hardball. He notes the cost to light only two of their diamonds is 540,000 dollars and adds the project will come in two phases.

"Phase one includes installation of some of the underground wiring, bases and poles. Phase two is the parts that cost the most which are the lighting packages and a few of the other electrical components that are required."

Grenier says most of the funding for phase one is in place but notes they’re still waiting on some responses from other sources for the remainder of the funding for phase one and phase two as well. Once complete, he adds this would now allow them to approach different types of tournaments and says it would also have a very positive impact on the local economy. 

"Nationals and westerns, which have been hard in our community to bid for in the past, so it impacts us a lot that way. The added tournaments will bring people to our community and it’ll affect our economy and just something that’s needed here."

When Seine River Minor Ball first started, Grenier notes Trans Canada Pipeline leased the property to the municipality and then the municipality provided them the space to be used for baseball. He says the only requirement was that they would maintain and upgrade the facility as needed. Grenier adds the park has seen a lot of change in the past few years. 

"From what the place was 10 or 15 years ago, it’s unimaginable the changes that have happened there with all the trees that have grown, the addition of multiple diamonds, washroom facilities and storage facilities We bought a $25,000 mower this year so that we can cut our own grass whereas in the past we were relying on the municipality to help us with the grass cutting but now we should be able to take care of our own stuff."

Grenier says they anticipate phase one will be complete by the end of March and phase two at the latest by the spring of 2019, again, all depending on when the funding falls into place.