Corner Brook Baseball Association hoping feds step up to the plate with new clubhouse funding soon

They aren’t expecting to be tossed a nasty curveball, but the Corner Brook Baseball Association is getting anxious about the delivery of funding for its new clubhouse.
Replacing the aged, substandard structure that has served young and old at Jubilee Field for about 70 years, has been deemed a priority by not just the association, but all three levels of government.
The City of Corner Brook and the provincial government have already committed to paying their equal shares for a new facility, expected to cost in the range of $1.5 million.
The city has applied to the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, which is an agreement for all three levels to share funding for capital works projects, but there has not been any announcement from the federal level yet.
According to the office of Gudie Hutchings, the Liberal Commons member for Long Range Mountains, Infrastructure Canada has not yet confirmed for the MP’s office the amount the federal government might provide or when any funding for the project will be announced.
Frank Humber, the baseball association’s director of field operations, is confident this is finally the year this project gets the green light. Still, he and the baseball community had hoped for good news by now.
In anticipation of funding approval, the association modified its schedule this summer so all baseball activities would be over by Aug. 31. The idea was that the allocations would be announced in time for the ball field to become a construction zone in September.
“If that is not the case and we don’t need to cancel fall baseball, we don’t want to,” said Humber. “So, some clarity around that is obviously important for us from an operational perspective.”
Funding for Jubilee Field will likely be just a small part of a bigger announcement of capital works funding for infrastructure projects in many communities besides Corner Brook. Humber says it’s a bit frustrating to think this project might already have the necessary approvals but is sitting on a desk waiting for other municipal infrastructure projects to also be decided on so they can all be announced at the same time.
He hopes the news can come in time for the new building to be closed in and be completed during the winter months in time for use next spring.
“We certainly don’t mind giving up our fall baseball season for this project,” he said. “We’ve waited long enough, so making some modifications to our season is not that great of a concern. But we certainly don’t want it to affect two seasons.”
If the field is still going to be available for play in September, the association would like to know so it can adjust its planning and scheduling. Humber would like to see baseball played right up until the last day possible.
“That’s the tricky part,” he said. “We didn’t take any fall tournaments this year because we were hoping the field would be a construction site. But it’s getting kind of late to be able to make those sorts of adjustments.”