Harmon Field baseball facilities, playground to get enhancements

TRYON – The Town of Tryon approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to get the Dallara Project started at Harmon Field, which will mean improvements to the baseball field, a statue, improvements to the playground and a plaque of the Tryon All-Stars team.

 

Tryon Town Council met Dec. 19 and approved the MOU, which will be sent to the Dallara Foundation for approval.

 

The MOU includes a timeline for the project, including design, permitting and bid phase for December 2017 – January 2018, contract award and groundbreaking for January – February 2018 and construction beginning between March and June 2018.

 

Town manager Zach Ollis said town attorney William Morgan prepared an MOU to get the project started.

 

Commissioners decided if the Dallara Foundation wanted any changes to the MOU, the town would call a special meeting to make decisions on the changes.

 

Harry Dallara passed away in 2012, three days after his last visit to Harmon Field at the age of 95. Dallara, of Spartanburg, found Harmon Field in the 1952 and visited often with his family. Charles Dallara, Harry’s son, is the Harry Dallara Foundation chairman and wants to honor his father by creating a statue at Harmon Field and doing improvements to the park.

 

The statue will be from a picture of Harry Dallara in his 90s swinging a baseball bat wearing khakis and a hat. Will Behrends, a world-renowned sculptor from Tryon, has agreed to create the statue of Dallara as well as a sculpture of the Tryon All-Stars, an African American semi-pro baseball team from Tryon that began in the 1940s. The team was never allowed to play at Harmon Field because of segregation at the time.

 

The project will be done in two phases. Phase I will include improvements to the baseball field’s infield drainage and installation of grass infield and irrigation, replacement of the backstop, replacement and extension of the fence, replacement of dugouts with added fabric shade cloth, new decorative concrete plaza pavement and concrete walks, initiation of the Tryon All-Stars plaque, initial work on the sculpture, replacement of bleachers with added stone columns and wrought iron screens, new stone walls and seat walls, new pedestrian lights and electrical service, new landscape boulders (vehicle barriers) and landscape plantings and grass.

 

The timeline for phase I includes design, permitting and bid phase between December 2017 and January 2018; the contract award and groundbreaking in January and February 2018; and construction from March through June 2018, according to the town’s MOU.

 

Phase II will include a new baseball field scoreboard, new concrete walk connecting to the concession area, improvements to the vehicle parking area to include striped asphalt parking area, new stone walls and seat walls, new benches, landscape plantings and grass and the installation of the Tryon All-Stars plaque and Dallara sculpture.

 

The timeline for phase II includes design, permitting and bid phase in May and June 2018; contract award in June and July 2018; installation of Tryon All-Stars feature and the Dallara sculpture in July and August 2018; and construction phase between August and October 2018.

 

The town’s MOU states that an opening ceremony is planned for the Tryon All-Stars features and the Dallara statue and will be “unveiled simultaneously in a ceremony signaling to the community in a unified fashion that all citizens are welcome today to Harmon Field, and that the new field represents family engagement and baseball at its best. These installations will not occur until the completion or near completion of the project.”

 

The MOU also states that the Dallara Project supports improvements to the adjacent playground area and will donate $20,000 to Fans of Harmon Field.

 

“The parties agree that a major renovation of the playground will be complementary to the major improvements to the baseball field and together will provide a dramatic enhancement to Harmon Field for the citizens of Tryon and Polk County,” the MOU states. “Dallara will provide this donation on or before December 2018.”

 

For more project details, drawings of the project, and information about Harry Dallara, visit harrydallarafoundation.org.