The Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department debuted new dugouts and a scoreboard at Vivion Field during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, the first of many improvements to the field.
The new dugouts are larger, set into the ground, and contain bathrooms and a storage area. The renovation cost about $65,000, Parks Assistant Director JJ Gates said.
“The dugouts were long overdue,” Parks Department Director Todd Spalding said. “They were very small and didn’t accommodate a full team, basically. The playing surface is top-notch, second to none, but one of the things for the teams that were playing on it, it was really difficult for all the players to have enough room.”
Jefferson City Public Schools, the Jefferson City Renegades, local children’s teams and the department’s recreational teams use Vivion Field. These entities consistently requested larger dugouts, Spalding said.
The department began making improvements to the dugouts last fall.
The Parks Department also partnered with Coca-Cola to get a new scoreboard with a video board. The old one had outlived its life and did not work most times, Spalding said.
The scoreboard replacement cost about $50,000, he said.
New dugouts and a replacement scoreboard are the first of other improvements at Vivion Field. The department plans to improve seating and the bathrooms next year, Spalding said.
With these improvements, Spalding said, the field will be more functional.