Preliminary work begins at site of Jeffers Road Park

The Eau Claire Community Foundation has said Jeffers Road Park would be the first joint boy and girl fields in Eau Claire. It would also include a playground, pavilion, and trails.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -- It could be late June of 2015 before teams start playing baseball and softball at Jeffers Road Park.

On Monday, Steve Nick of Eau Claire Fastpitch said crews had recently broken ground at the site, although a formal groundbreaking ceremony has not been held. He called the work at the site "preliminary," and said that it amounts to simply "pushing some dirt around" at this point. A groundbreaking ceremony may be a few weeks away. Nick also admitted that progress at the site is a little behind where the organization had hoped it would be by now.

"We'd hoped sort of to be seeding already, and that would have...had probably grass growing in place so kids could have been playing in May, and people probably could be...from the public out there in May," Nick said. "We're still coming along awfully fast for not having started this concept until last December, but, we're looking more now, you know, more of a fall planting instead of a mid-to-late summer planting."

Nick said the organization hopes to start playing on the new fields at its tournament at the end of June. He believes the site will look like baseball and softball diamonds by spring 2015, but the organization wants to give the turf some time to solidify before it starts having games at the park. He said more than $200,000 in pledges have come in for the project. The goal is $350,000 in donations. It has also received in kind donations from key contractors.

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Preliminary work begins at site of Jeffers Road Park