By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
A lot of work has occurred in the past couple or so weeks at John E. Richardson Stadium in Gorin Park.
“We still have a lot to go, but it’s getting really close to being a baseball stadium again,” said Eddie Furlong, director of the Glasgow Parks and Recreation Department.
“The bleachers look good,” said city Councilman Freddie Norris, a member of the Glasgow Common Council Parks and Recreation Committee that Furlong was addressing.
To that, Furlong added: “The fencing looks good, the building itself looks good. Um, there’s some finishing stuff that we still have to do, such as – and not all of it’s going to happen before the season – but some of the things that are left to do is the paving around the front of the building.”
“The concession area?” Norris asked.
“Yeah, that whole loop, basically, needs to be repaved,” Furlong said, adding that the construction process had taken a toll on it.
He drew a rough sketch of how the buildings with the concessions, press box and bathrooms are laid out with a breezeway between them and a wrought-iron fence.
“All those rooms are heated and cooled. They’re a lot nicer than the rest of the bathrooms and stuff that we have in the parks,” Furlong said. “They’re going to put the windows in for the press box and the concession stand this week or next week. … My guys are working on the concession stand right now, building some shelves and cabinets and stuff, and then, in the press box, they’re building a platform for the people that do the calling of the games to sit up. We raised the window up so that it’s above head height of people walking in front, and you can actually see the field a little bit better. … So they’re working on that this week and should have it done before the end of this week.”
He said he met with someone from Glasgow High School, which uses Sam Royse Field for its home baseball games, and they’re purchasing some things on their end to help stock it.
“All the lights were working and everything so, knock on wood, things are going to be good for whenever the season starts,” Furlong said.
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery said she believes the first game there is scheduled for March 17.
Norris said he went by Friday and players were out there working on the base areas, and Furlong said they started Thursday pulling weeds and getting rocks off the field and such.
He said he and the Department of Public Works Superintendent went there Thursday with Mayor Henry Royse and his brother and the GHS team’s former coach Sam Royse, who hadn’t seen it in a while.
“Sam was real complimentary of it,” Furlong said.
Councilman Terry Bunnell said they should have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and really celebrate it, “because it’s come a long way.”
The decades-old facility was heavily damaged by fire in 2022, and the process of rebuilding it has taken multiple phases of work.
Furlong said it’s roughly 95 percent finished now other than some minor things and the paving.
Furlong reiterated that installations of the security cameras the city currently has has been completed at parks and other locations in the city, and more are planned for Richardson Stadium and American Legion Park, but that is likely to occur after the new budget year starts July 1.
He said participation in bitty ball and volleyball increased and spring soccer sign-ups start in two weeks. He asked the group to review the copy of the rules and regulations he had provided at the end of last year and provide any feedback they have. He also noted that a new park ranger has been hired and is currently in training.
Furlong also reported on the construction progress at American Legion Park, which Glasgow News 1 has reported separately.
With those three members present, the panel decided unanimously to have the seasonal change in park hours coincide with when daylight saving time starts and ends, so the hours will go from the “winter hours” of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. back to the regular hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on March 9 this year. Then Nov. 2 is when the winter hours will begin again.
Also during the meeting, the trio present chose to keep Lowery as chair and elected Norris as secretary. The group also formally voted to change its name from the Planning and Development Committee to the Parks and Recreation Committee and to change its regular meeting time, day and location, in large part to accommodate the new member, Councilman Tommy Burris, who wasn’t at this meeting and can’t attend on first Mondays at least part of the year.
Another person new to the council, but who is not a member of the committee, Randy Wilkinson, attended and observed and asked several questions about things as the meeting was drawing to a close.
Bunnell asked about when they would be able to work on the tennis courts at Gorin Park and asked Furlong to contact Tennis Technologies for a quote on getting a “patch and paint” job. Some of the courts have significant cracks in the pavement, and he shared photos of those with the group.
The regular meeting that would have been March 3 is thus cancelled, and the next regular meeting is at 5 p.m. March 10 in the conference room adjacent to Council Chambers in the Luska J. Twyman Municipal Building formerly known as Glasgow City Hall. (Signage changes are in the works for the building.) Subsequent meetings will then be on the second Mondays of the month at that same time and place.
