The Wellsville Historical and Preservation Society is looking to make some more improvements to Kiwanis Ballpark before the city’s Little League baseball season begins this summer.

Historical and Preservation Society president Dena Saak shared the ballpark’s plans during the Wellsville City Council meeting on Jan. 23. The ballpark, located on the north side of town, is looking to get new dugouts installed and have a brand new fence put up.

“We found out that we had to move the fence,” Saak said. “Since we were going to be putting up a new dugout, we decided that we would do that before we put in the new dugout. Within the next couple of weeks, the old fence on that right side is going to come down. The Wellsville Community Athletic League is going to put up a new fence and we’ll have the dugouts put up. There is going to be a lot of activity over the next couple of months out there.”

The Wellsville Community Athletic League has 15 members and is led by Amy Trent. It hosted a movie-themed trivia night on Jan. 25 at Grace Lutheran Hall to help raise money for the work being done at the ballpark. The league had signups on Feb. 8 at the Wellsville Fire Department and will have another sign-up session on March 1, which will also be held at the fire department.

“I think the athletic group is hooking up with Vandalia,” Saak said. “They’re going to be playing some different teams this year. I think they were playing just one group, maybe Montgomery City, last year. There are a lot of changes going on.”

Saak said the ballpark will be completely done as long as there is no inclement weather during the springtime. Recently, she made a visit there and got stuck in the mud from the heavy rain the Wellsville area got.

“We’re going to actually take off a couple of inches of that topsoil, bring in the other type of soil and put it in the center field so that it would drain better and we won’t have much of a problem during the ballgame,” Saak said. “Hopefully, we won’t get as much rain this year. It all depends on springtime. Hopefully, we can get it done. If we have good weather, we’ll get it done in time and have our first games there on time.”

The Historical and Preservation Society has been focusing on making improvements at the ballpark for the last two years. 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.

The ballpark had wiring and lighting for years before 25 LED lights were installed during the summer of 2024. The society had to come up with plans to build new dugouts at the park after a storm in July 2024 destroyed a dugout that was facing right field.

Saak said whenever the work is done at Kiwanis Ballpark, the Wellsville-Middletown High School baseball team can play its games there since it has no lights at its field.

“We’re really hoping the high school would start taking advantage of the ballfield and start using it more to bring more people into town,” Saak said.