West Chester Baseball Complex gets $450,000 synthetic turf

Young athletes compete at Performance Automotive Fields at West Chester Baseball Complex.

Young athletes compete at Performance Automotive Fields at West Chester Baseball Complex.

The West Chester Baseball Complex will sport some new synthetic turf this season now that trustees approved a $456,382 contract.

The turf will be installed on fields one and four at the complex on Union Centre Boulevard in Beckett Park, by Prograss LLC this spring. The township is paying half the cost and West Chester Baseball Partnership, the nonprofit that runs the complex, will pick up the rest over a 10-year period.

MORE: Baseball complex on TIF project list

The township is using tax increment financing dollars (TIF) to pay for the turf, a worthy expenditure of those funds, according to Township Administrator Judi Boyko.

“When the previous board of trustees decided to build the complex and the previous board of trustees decided to partner with a nonprofit to operate the complex, one of the major obligations of that partnership was to promote the select baseball opportunities through tournaments and mostly out-of-state tournaments, bringing in teams, bringing in visitor industry and staying at the hotels, patronizing the stores, eating at the restaurants,” Boyko said. “So that stimulates the economy of West Chester’s business, therefore it is an eligible TIF expense.”

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