Athletic Foundation: new baseball complex finished near budget; priority now paying bridge loan and turf replacement

The Board of Finance heard an update from the UKM Athletic Foundation on the new baseball complex, which the foundation and town completed at about $5.6 million and with only a small overrun, the foundation said. "The baseball project came out incredible," Mike, an Athletic Foundation representative, told the board.

The project cost about $5,600,000, the foundation said, with the town contributing a flat $2,000,000 and the Athletic Foundation contributing roughly $3,600,000; the foundation covered a 1.5% overrun from contingency funds it had wired to the town. The foundation also said there were significant early “soft costs” in design it underwrote.

The update matters because the field adds turf capacity, reducing a long-standing local bottleneck for youth and school sports. "The ability to have this on campus with an additional ... something like 45% additional turf to that complex allows for…