With the Kiwanis Ballpark in Wellsville having lighting and wiring issues for many years, the city’s Historical and Preservation Society wanted to help do something about it last year.

The organization got a couple of grants, got some donations from local businesses and held a trivia night fundraiser. It raised $60,000 to help repair the lighting and wiring at the ballpark, where the Wellsville Little League baseball teams play at.

“Farmer’s Elevator sold us the wiring at cost,” Historical and Preservation Society president Dena Saak said. “We had a lot of support. If we didn’t have the support, it probably would have been a couple of hundred thousand dollar project. The committee that we started out with told us they tried to do it a few years back and it was going to run them $200,000. They didn’t think it could be done. We kept doing it until we got it done. I’m happy that it’s done.”

Now, the Historical and Preservation Society is looking to help build a new dugout at the ballpark after a storm in July destroyed a dugout that is facing right field.

“We already got people offering to help us with that,” Saak said. “We’ll have new dugouts and new lighting systems. I’m pretty happy about that. The dugouts won’t be done probably until the end of fall. We’re going to actually make them a little bit bigger.”

The ballpark has 25 new LED lights that were installed earlier this summer. Saak said with the ballpark having new lighting, she hopes there will be an increase of players in the Wellsville Little League.

“I’m happy to get it where it’s at,” Saak said. “Hopefully, we’ll get more teams this next year and play more kids. It seems like a lot of games were played in Middletown. We didn’t have the kids signing up, but I don’t know if they did a really good job of advertising it. I saw something on Facebook where they asked, ‘Where can we sign up for Little League?’ So I don’t think it was really communicated that well.”

Saak said the Wellsville-Middletown athletic department asked if the high school baseball team could play at the ballpark.

“I don’t think the city or anybody has any problem with them holding ball games out there,” Saak said. “The one problem with the field is it’s not 350 feet. It gets shorter and the school doesn’t like that. The fencing is closer in right field than it is to left field.”

The trivia night fundraiser was held on March 25, 2023 at Grace Lutheran Fellowship Hall. The entry fee was $200 for a team of eight and a silent auction was held.

“We did very well,” Saak said. “We had a lot of auction items. We brought a guy in from St. Louis to do it. He’s a professional at it. We did very well. All of our tables were full. It’s hard for people to get a team together. You have to have eight friends who are willing to say, ‘OK, I’ll take a night and go up there.’ It was fun. Everybody had a great time. We had it set up to where they could bring whatever food and drinks that they wanted. It ran really smoothly.”

Kiwanis Ballpark had a set of lights that was put up in the early 1980s before it started to have issues with lighting and wiring years later.
“Some people would travel from Warrenton or somewhere to play, then they get there and maybe play an inning and were told they had to call the game,” Saak said. “They had to be fixed.”