Seaside Park Awards Contract for Baseball Field Improvements

New lighting at the Seaside Park baseball field, 13th-14th avenues, Dec. 15, 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Seaside Park’s municipal baseball field will see its next round of improvements this year, with the borough council having approved a contract for grading to alleviate the ponding of water on the field, as well as the construction of a new backstop near home plate.

The governing body voted unanimously to award a contract to the low bidder, Down to Earth Landscaping, for $176,146. The borough recently obtained a $75,000 grant from the state which will defray some of the costs associated with the project.

Late last year, the borough contracted with T&M Engineering to design a plan for the improvements of Moe Levine Field and Park, which spans the area between 13th and 14th avenues between Barnegat and Bayview avenues. The plan is a scaled-down version of a more expensive plan that had been under consideration if outside funding sources had materialized. The initial plan included piping underneath the field and more wide-ranging improvements, however the new plan is more affordable and is expected to eliminate the flooding that has occasionally rendered the field unavailable for games. Seaside Park hopes to continue attracting college summer leagues to play in town, a tradition that has seen several Major League Baseball players make a stop locally on their journey to the big leagues.

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The plans call for a resurfacing of the field, an underground drainage retention basin, new base paths and a new backstop, among a few other aesthetic upgrades. The field will also be re-sodded and graded.

The 14th Avenue playground in Seaside Park, N.J., Oct. 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

“It’s a slight elevation, and allowing that runoff into the outfield area and some underground,” Mayor John Peterson said previously. “The project will have a positive impact on the drainage that was coming off the whole site onto 13th Avenue. That was another area affected, so it helps there considerably.”

Peterson said there is an “outside chance” the project may be able to be scheduled for completion before spring, however it is more likely that much of the work will be completed after the season so the field will still be usable this spring and summer.