Vikings to play new season on new field.
By: Josh Appelbaum
The Cranbury School baseball team will play its season opener next week on a new, $25,000 ball field that was completed Wednesday.
The Board of Education commissioned Precise Construction to build the temporary field just west of the school. It will be used by the Vikings baseball team until a proposed Babe Ruth League field on the Wright South property is built.
Previously, the baseball and softball teams played their games on fields at Village Park. The softball team will continue to play its games at Village Park.
School Business Administrator Brian DeLucia said that once the baseball team moves to the Babe Ruth League field, the field will be reconfigured into a softball field. Baseball requires a 90-foot base path and a pitcher’s mound, while softball requires no mound and 60-foot base paths.
The school board originally contracted Precise to construct a softball field and had to approve an additional $8,340 Tuesday for 156 tons of clay for the larger field.
Committeewoman Pari Stave said the Babe Ruth field could be ready as soon as the spring or summer of 2006, though that timeline depends on the progress of an arsenic soil remediation project that will begin in June or July.
Brown & Keener Urban Designs of Philadelphia will design the ball field, which is expected to cost $75,000 and be covered by a grant from the Middlesex County Open Space and Recreation and Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
A report on soil testing and arsenic abatement will be given by Township Engineer Cathleen Marcelli to the Township Committee on May 23.

