This spring, Island Dream Kitchens was a proud community partner to renovate the Peninsula Baseball & Softball Association’s (PBSA) full-sized baseball field. The journey started in 2008 to receive additional land from the Victoria Airport Authority to expand the size of three baseball fields. Island Dream Kitchens crafted helmet cubbies, bat racks, coach’s stations and shelving units for the new field. As with all of our projects, we used the highest quality materials (this time for outdoor use) and our crew installed all the components on site.
Read Dave Swinton’s post about the project below:
“We can’t recommend Island Dream Kitchens enough for your custom cabinet needs based on their generosity to PBSA.”
Dave Swinton
Chair, Park Improvement Committee
Peninsula Baseball & Softball Association
The Peninsula Baseball & Softball Association is really proud of our recently completed ‘Dugout Project’ and we’d like to acknowledge the community partners that made it possible.
The renovation of our full-sized baseball field actually began many years ago. In 2008, we asked for and received some additional land from the Victoria Airport Authority allowing us to expand the size of three baseball fields. This was to bring them up to standard for Baseball Canada play as they were originally built to Little League specifications that no longer applied to our new programming. In 2010, we started moving a lot of earth to make this happen.
A few years later we had a new expanded outfield and decided the next move for our full-size field was to move the infield out 25’ from the back stop. This was completed in the summer of 2015. Once we had a regulation size playing surface we turned our focus to the dugouts as we realized that we had dugouts that could not accommodate many of the teams that would play on this field. In early 2017, the PBSA board approved the expenditure to take on the task of replacing the dugouts.
Dan Carrier of Cypress Homes agreed to be the General Contractor on the project. Dan would go on to manage the project from start to finish and PBSA is forever indebted to Dan for his community spirit in making this happen. Our first step was to obtain a set of engineered drawings and a building permit (who knew?) before we could start. That brings us to Blackwell Structural Engineers who not only provided us the required drawings but went above and beyond throughout the whole project in a consulting role while appeasing the VAA’s building permit branch. We are forever thankful to Blackwell for their support of PBSA.
With permits in place, we were able to demo the old dugouts and commence construction in late February. We went out to the community to see if any building material suppliers would be willing to partner with us and were knocked over by the generosity of Tim Urquhart from Slegg Building Materials. Their community spirit on this project from start to finish is truly amazing.
To get our pads poured and the dugouts framed up we turned to two additional PBSA members – Randy Cunningham of Randy Cunningham Construction and Shane Tremblay of Birch Road Builders. Dan, Randy and Shane were able to get the units framed up with a roof over head when we had to cease construction because the 2017 spring season started.
At this time we envisioned some pretty cool needs for within the dugout and we went out to the community looking for a cabinet maker that would like to partner with us. This is where Mike Brown of Island Dream Kitchens stepped up. Having had boys play in the Greater Victoria Baseball Association a few years ago Mike felt it was an opportunity to give back. We were thrilled to work with him and have the helmet cubbies, bat racks, coach’s stations and shelving units all provided to PBSA. Only the best outdoor materials for the application were used and Mike and his crew even installed everything on site for us. They certainly make the dugouts complete and we can’t recommend Island Dream Kitchens enough for your custom cabinet needs based on their generosity to PBSA.
We got back after it in the fall of 2017 and painted the units up before having the cabinetry installed and finishing off the dugouts with a beautiful 32’ two tiered players bench we built to complete the dugouts. We are very proud of this project we took on. Although not necessarily on schedule we came in well under budget on what turned out to be nicer dugouts than we originally envisioned. This was all made possible by the above mentioned community partners that we are so pleased to be associated with. We would also be remiss in not thanking the Town of Sidney and the Victoria Airport Authority for their support. And last but not least to all the Peninsula Baseball members that spent time contributing to this project, we thank you very much.
This field is now something we are very proud of at Peninsula Baseball. Ninety foot baseball fields are in short supply across Victoria and we now have one of the finest. Enjoy some pictures of the final product.
Dave Swinton
Chair, Park Improvement Committee
Peninsula Baseball & Softball Association
