By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp. — During the regular meeting on Monday night, the Brandon Township board of trustees voted unanimously to accept a quote from DuraEdge to repair the baseball fields at Brandon Township Park, 1414 N. Hadley Road.
“We built those about four years ago now, I believe,” said Supervisor Jayson Rumball. “Unfortunately, those fields are pretty much unusable right now and none of the baseball teams want to use the fields because the limestone has essentially become concrete and kids are hurting themselves on the concrete.”
The parks and recreation subcommittee recommended the approval of the quote for $34,767.39. There were no competitor quotes as DuraEdge is the only company in the state that uses this type of material, Rumball said.
“They’ve actually done Comerica Park, the park in Utica,” said Rumball. “They do most of the professional fields in the area as well. And we, conveniently, do have a sales rep for this company that lives in Clarkston.”
The bid includes 125 tons of DuraEdge Classic, four tons of ProSlide Topdressing and professional installation.
DuraEdge classic is an infield toil that is a total of 72% sand, and the company says it is ideal for low-maintenance, and is mostly used for recreational specifications. It is one of three engineered infield soils that DuraEdge offers, and does not require access to water for maintenance.
The ProSlide Topdressing is an expanded shale infield topdressing, which resists physical degradation from routine use, and has a fine texture for sliding.
The installation includes performing infield topography to determine grades, measuring and marking fields for lip removal and moving the arc back about three feet, trimming all grass edges and removing lips, rough laser grade using existing material to allow a two inch cap, install two inch cap per specifications, compacting the fields, relocating bases as needed, top dressing with conditioner and grooming for play.
The new upgrades will extend the life of the fields, and with regular maintenance, they should last around 20 years. The project is expected to start in June, and the fields would be available for fall season use. Currently, they are not being used by Brandon Recreation for baseball programs.
“The fields are not being used right now because no baseball team will use them,” said Rumball.