Construction Set to Begin on New Roseburg High School Softball Field

Construction on a new turf softball field along the river next to Roseburg High School is set to ramp up here in the next week after getting school board approval. Knife River got the contract to do all the grading, concrete and prep work and Hellas Construction got the contract for the installation of the turf. The project is a result of a Title IX complaint filed against the Roseburg School District in an effort to ensure fairness between girls and boys teams. Since the boys had access to a turf baseball field and the girls didn’t have access to a turf softball field, the Oregon Department of Education found that the district was out of compliance, even though the district doesn’t own the turf field at Legion field, but are renters. The district worked with the complainant to consider potential options, such as turfing the two softball fields at Stewart Parkway, but developing the field at RHS was the preferred option. The district had previously purchased the property behind Finlay Field for just this purpose, and the new field will help take pressure off the existing Stewart Park fields. Building a new field from scratch will cost the school district approximately $1.8 million dollars once all the dugouts, bleachers, scoreboard, etc are constructed. According to Cheryl Northam, the district's director of finance and operations, the funds for the field are coming from the Roseburg School District general fund. The district has been setting aside some funds each year into a major maintenance fund, and will be drawing from that fund to pay for the field Northam said at a recent school board meeting. The setting for the field is going to be very picturesque as it’s located right next to the South Umpqua River. The field will primarily be used for softball, but will also be available to other sports as a practice field. The district hopes to have the project completed in time for the first spring softball practice which is at the end of February in 2024.