Speed-O wall project is complete
EAST BUTLER— Speed-OField lost its lease, but gained a unique personality.
The home of the East Butler American Legion baseball team and the biggest of the four fields comprising the East Butler Baseball Association Complex has realized the completion of its new outfield wall.
The wall stands 15 feet high, except for an 80-foot by 20-foot green batter's eye in center field. The project took three years to complete.
"The community got behind it and the project quickly gained momentum,"project coordinator Dess Schnur said. "Without the community support, this doesn't happen."
The project got started because the lease covering 17 feet from the left-field foul pole toward left-center field wasn't going to be renewed three years ago.
Schnur said the revised lease would have cost more money than the associationhad, "so I wanted to turn a negative into a positive."
While vacationing in Florida, Schnur saw some unique outfield walls and decided to try getting one built for Speed-OField.
"He brought back some pictures of fields in Florida, sold everybody on the idea and we went for it," said former East Butler assistant coach Larry Dorondo said. "Dess has a way of pulling people together."
The idea of the tall wall was to bring the left-field fence in to get it off the leased property. The height of 15 feet was calculated because "a line drive had to go 300 feet down the line to clear it," Schnur said. "That effectively kept our field the same distance."A total of 63 poles were acquired and set by various utility companies to hold up the wall. Businesses bought 38 advertising signs on the wall to help defray its cost.Besides the outfield wall, a 10-foot by 32-foot deck was built in center field and canopies were installed over the bleachers for spectator comfort.Dorondo and Schnur estimate that 50 people volunteered to help build the wall, not counting the work of the utility companies. Dorondo was the prime builder of the deck, with another four helping him."I was up there every weekend and at least three days a week after work, working on it,"Dorondo said. "It's something we wanted to do."Schnur has 45 years of baseball experience at East Butler, including 24 as manager of its American Legion team. Dorondo coached in East Butler for 15 years, many of those at the Little League level.Neither is coaching this year, though their legacy lives on in the ballpark's improvements."It's been my passion to improve baseball facilities to help youths enjoy the game in Butler County,"Schnur said.Schnur estimated the cost of the project to be $150,000. Volunteer labor and donated materials covered more than $100,000 of the would-be cost, with the advertising billboards taking care of the rest.The Butler County Department of Community Corrections' community service program contributed much of the labor for the final phase of the construction."This shows what can happen when a community gets behind something," Schnur said.
