Park board planning updates at Schroeder Park in phases

At the Imperial Park Board meeting July 8, board member Carl Zuege brought up past discussion about updating Schroeder Park.
In the past, the discussion centered around a complete overhaul, including moving fields.
According to the board minutes, the games that Chase County’s softball team hosts are in the afternoons when the sun is directly in the eyes of players and fans.
Instead of a complete overhaul, “right now, the idea is to kind of try to take Schroeder Park on in phases,” Zuege said.
The first step is to get a game-ready softball field. Zuege said that will most likely be on the south field.
To start on the south field, the infield would need to be replaced with dirt and leveled.
Clerk/Administrator Jo Leyland said about $17,000 has been budgeted for new dirt for that south field.
“Right now it’s not the most level surface in the world,” Zuege said.
Next on the south field list would be to replace all the fencing, including a higher fence along the outside.
The updated south field would still work for little league baseball and softball games, Zuege said.
The middle field could be dedicated to PeeWee and coed softball, he added.
Currently, the high school team needs to bring in a temporary fence and move the bases in the summer, “which isn’t a huge deal,” Zuege added.
Another change to Schroeder in the future is addressing  the issue of a new concession stand/bathroom building.
Leyland said the concession stand/bathroom project would be the biggest budget item. “From a budget standpoint, that would take more than one year,” she said.
Later phases also include fencing for the rest of the park and a possible rotating of the north field, moving home plate closer to the current concession stands.
“We haven’t finalized a lot of those,” Zuege said. “But right now, our first thing is that south field.”