OOSTBURG — Oostburg community members are left shaking their heads after they discovered damage to one of their ballfields.
The Oostburg Athletic Association saw the damage to Flipse Field at Dirkse Park on Monday. They don't know when it happened, but they believe it could have happened Saturday night or Sunday. They know someone was working on the field during the day Saturday.
"All the time and labor we put in here, and we’re just backtracking our work," said Athletic Association President Jason Townsend.
The land was donated to the association, and for three years they say dozens of volunteers worked to make it a baseball field, with the help of fundraising and other donors.
"One Saturday we had just little kids out here, we had to pick up rocks before we can plant grass, so we had all these kids, they're the future of this organization, and they want to play baseball," said Travis Krell, the secretary-recorder of the Oostburg Athletic Association. "And they’re out in this grass field before we can plant seed, picking up rocks, and then to have somebody come and do this, it disrespects the village."
The association wanted to build the field so that kids wouldn't have to travel out of town to play. They say no one has played on it yet because the spring was too wet. Now they worry about the cost of the damaged outfield, which they haven't yet figured out. Thankfully, the infield was left unscathed.
"The fact that they missed the infield means there's a lot less work for us to do, but the fact that they may come back and do it again," Krell said. "It would be unfortunate to accrue another cost to put up more fencing to stop someone from just driving on the field, but it's something we might have to do."
The association filed a report with the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Office. They hope to fix the field this week.
