AUBURN — The Maine Army National Guard is clearing land on Stevens Mill Road to train personnel on heavy machinery, and Auburn youth baseball and softball players are benefiting.
Officials from the Guard and Auburn City Hall were at the future youth sports complex Monday morning as site work continued with the help of guardsmen taking part in the Guard’s summer Innovative Readiness Training project.
The property between Hotel and Stevens Mill roads was gifted to Auburn Suburban Baseball and Softball in 2020, and a project approved this spring will construct two fields, as well as a practice field with batting cages. It also includes three proposed parking areas, concession building with bathroom facilities and a maintenance and storage garage.
A city news release Monday said units under the 133rd Engineer Battalion, including the 136th Engineer Vertical Construction Company and the 262nd Engineer Construction Company, are “clearing, grubbing and grading the property.”
“They are working on a community outreach project that will impact Auburn youth for generations,” the release said.
The Little League organization, which serves some 500 children annually, will vacate its facility off Garfield Road that includes land owned by the Maine National Guard.
Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque and other city officials walked the site with Brig. Gen. Dean A. Preston, land component commander for the Maine Army National Guard, and others, with the sounds of beeping tractors nearby.
Travis Bashaw, director of Auburn Suburban, said clearing the site is the first major step of an important project for Auburn. The organization has not hired a contractor for the field, but has received several estimates. Once hired, the company would come in after the Guard and lay down a “final grade” and the turf product.
Asked about a potential opening day for the new fields, Bashaw said that’s still be to determined. The league still has to raise funds for the project. It is also in the process of procuring field sponsors, he said, including field naming rights.
“Logistically, with fall being the best time to build, if we could have some movement by fall, that would be the best case scenario,” he said. “We’re looking to really try to raise the awareness of what’s happening. This will be the first stand-alone home for Auburn Suburban, and this is a huge moment, we have one shot at this.”
Bashaw also said the project is an opportunity to “reinvigorate and inject energy into the sport” at the youth level.
In southern Maine and across the country, participation in baseball, long considered a model for youth sports, has dropped significantly in recent decades.
According to the release, the work in Auburn is one of six community outreach projects of various sizes for the 2023 annual training season in June. The projects have long been a staple in the Guard’s annual training repertoire, particularly for engineering and transportation units.
Other projects will take place in East Millinocket, Skowhegan, Presque Isle and Lake George Regional State Park.
“Auburn is fortunate to have such dedicated citizen soldiers available to help make this youth complex a reality,” Levesque said Monday, “The amount of planning by city staff, Auburn Suburban and the Maine Army National Guard is simply amazing.”
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