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Ripken's complex going to the city
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Former Baltimore Oriole and Baseball Hall Of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. held a press conference at the Bragg Hill Family Life Center in Fredericksburg in September.
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Children line up to learn infielding skills during Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation's baseball festival last year.
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Silt from the Rappahannock River was pumped through 3,000 feet of pipeline several years ago to an area near Bragg Hill that will be the site of the Ripken baseball complex.
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Ripken foundation says Fredericksburg makes most sense for fields
BY EMILY BATTLE
Date published: 1/30/2008
BY EMILY BATTLE
A youth baseball complex bearing one of the biggest names in baseball will be built on city-owned land behind Fredericksburg's Bragg Hill neighborhood.
The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation has chosen a 48-acre site on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg as the location for the complex, which is part of a bigger program that seeks to improve the lives of at-risk youth.
The foundation also looked at sites in New Post in Spotsylvania County and near Drew Middle School in Stafford County.
Ripken Foundation Deputy Executive Director Chuck Brady said the decision was based on where the foundation could serve the most children with the biggest needs.
"We wanted to be able to make the biggest impact on kids," Brady said.
In the Fredericksburg schools, 46 percent of students were eligible for free and reduced lunch in the 2006-07 school year. That compares to 16 percent of Stafford students and 21 percent of Spotsylvania students, according to the state Department of Education.
Additionally, the city's poverty rate was estimated in 2005 at 17 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in Stafford and 5.5 percent in Spotsylvania, according to 2005 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Brady said he expects the primary users of the complex to be kids within a 2- to 3-mile radius, which would include some areas of the counties whose populations also have great needs.
He said the foundation sees the facility as a place where the organizations it partners with can get outside and teach the lessons of Ripken's character-development programs.
While it could become a venue for baseball tournaments, he doesn't see that as its main purpose.
"We see it being used by kids that have traditionally not had access to many ballfields," he said.
Local philanthropist Doris Buffett, who announced last fall that she would give the effort $1 million if it could raise $1 million on its own, applauded the decision to locate the fields in Fredericksburg.
"You've got to have it located where kids can get to it," Buffett said. "I'm delighted. I hope Fredericksburg gets behind it."
Brady estimates the complex could cost around $2 million, although design work has not yet begun.
The foundation also wants to raise some money for future programming at the fields, and Brady estimated it may seek around $1.5 million in excess of Buffett's gift.
The city will be responsible for grading and prepping the land for construction, building utilities to the site and operating and maintaining the fields once they are built.
City Public Facilities Director Bob Antozzi said it's not clear yet how much utility hookups and maintaining the finished facility will cost.
He said the grading won't cost the city anything. The landscaping firm that has been working with Friends of the Rappahannock on that property to make compost has agreed to leave it graded to the city's specifications.
The Rev. Joseph Henderson, whose Bragg Hill Family Life Center is already partnering with the Ripken Foundation, said the announcement is good news.
"It's not just the fields," he said. "It's providing volunteers, structure, manpower and the presence of an organization like Cal Ripken."
Brady said Ripken Foundation officials met with representatives in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties in the past few weeks to tell them about their decision.
He said the foundation wants to continue to work with all regional localities through their school systems, parks and recreation programs, sheriff's departments and other organizations to help reach more kids.
"We never brought politics into our decision," he said. "Maybe this is something that can bring the three jurisdictions together around something. It's not political. It's about their kids."
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
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SIZE: 48 acres
LOCATION:On the Rappahannock River, behind the Bragg Hill community
Why the city owns it:
Fredericksburg bought this property from the Silver Cos. in 2003 for $2.5 million. It used the land to store silt removed by the Army Corps of Engineers from the Rappahannock River after the removal of the Embrey Dam.
What about traffic?
It's not a huge issue for the Ripken Foundation, which envisions the primary market for the field as kids who live within a close radius--many of whom may come in on school or community buses--not masses of baseball league parents and players coming in for tournaments. As plans to widen Fall Hill Avenue move slowly along, Ripken's Chuck Brady said, "While it will be great when they widen it, I'm not sure it will make a huge impact on us."
What's next?
Foundation officials will conduct a fundraising feasibility study in February. By that time, they should also have some information on what the complex could look like. They'll launch a fundraising campaign in the coming months, and hope to have all pledges and donations by the end of this year. |
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Date published: 1/30/2008
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Ripkin is Baltimore,Md. I dont think anything he is
envolved in would be bad for Fredricksburg.
I think what the Ripken Foundation is doing for the kids in our community is absolutely wonderful. We should all celebrate this accomplishment for our kids and use our energy to be supportive off this initiative and quit using something this positive to take cheap shots at each other.
You didn't have to, that's what Girvan is for. Watch and listen,
she will be out in front of this trying to dupe the gullible into
believing this happened because of her. Stay tuned...
I'm a single mom and the neighborhood I grew up in is full of them. It's like they don't care. I applaud his service. If everyone who voiced opinions was doing the same we'd be changing things at a much quicker pace.
Einstein continues to show why his tag name is a Misnomer...
And youre calling me a racist? I never mentioned mentioned a race, I think YOU are the one PRESSUMING a race...the definition of Racism...Assuming a stereotype based on Race. I'm out there working to better these communities while you sit back and read the article and say " 'nice' program, let them fix our problems." My logic is clear...Unless you directly address ALL the problems, your just treating syptoms.
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Ripkin...
(posted by
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, Jan. 30, 2008 6:41 pm)
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