New building to bring major improvements to Hanford's Youth Athletic Complex

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- One major improvement coming to Hanford's Youth Athletic Complex on Campus Drive and Greenfield Avenue, has locals looking forward to the future of youth baseball.

The forty year old concession stand and restrooms will be torn down in the coming months.

The city plans to start demolishing the current two story building in July of 2024.

By 2025, a brand new single story, ADA approved building, will take its place.

Ami Minor has been volunteering at her children's baseball games for ten years.

Her family and others in the area are excited for the change.

"We're looking forward to having the new concession and the new facilities. This building is on its last leg. My husband played here on the same fields and we've done the best we can with it over the years," said Ami.

Requests for bids are out- and the city expects to hear back within a month as it works to choose a company to tackle the upgrades.

Planning for the $1.2 million project has been in the works since 2018.

It's now possible thanks in large part to more than $900,000 in American Rescue Plan funds.

"The other 300,000 or so it's coming from our capital improvement budget and that's just something that the city identifies overtime and this was on that list but we could've never done it without the ARPA funding," explained Brad Albert, the City of Hanford's Parks and Community Services Director.

This year, the Hanford Youth Baseball program has over 700 players.

Ami says it's the largest group she has seen in the last decade.

The new building is expected to be used for at least 50 years.

"It's gonna be great for the next generation of kiddos I feel like we've got a great program here and when people come they have a great experience and so to be able to offer them ADA bathrooms and a concession stand that is state of the art it's amazing for the future of the program," Ami said.

Groundbreaking is expected to happen sometime after baseball season this year.

The city is hopeful the new concession stand should be complete by March of 2025.

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