PORT CARBON - The backstop at the Teener League Field at the borough's John L. Miller Playground has been repaired and field-tested.
Danny Herb and Michael Kuperavage, both 15, of Port Carbon, two of the league's baseball players, said Wednesday they saw balls hit the repaired backstop at games played there May 30 and June 2.
"It's working good. I hope it lasts at least 50 years, what the last one lasted," the Port Carbon Teener League's Dave Correll, manager of Tuscarora Coal, said Wednesday.
Tuscarora Coal is the Teener League baseball team that calls the Miller Playground field home. It's located just off Route 209 and Main Street.
The repair work, financed by the borough and through donations from area businesses and individuals, was done between May 19 and 26, Correll said.
"The borough offered approximately $600. Plus we received about $300 in donations," Correll said.
The playground was dedicated July 4, 1964, according to a memorial to Miller at the site. And that's roughly the time frame when the original backstop at the Teener League Field was put up, members of borough council said at a special meeting on the matter May 15.
The backstop is 30 feet long and 12 feet high and its metal poles and plywood surface had been rotting, according to borough Councilman John Franko, chairman of the council's property committee.
On April 6, Franko and Councilman Warren Thomas, chairman of the council's recreation committee, tore down the remains of the plywood and discovered the metal poles that were holding it in place were well worn and falling apart.
On May 15, the council agreed to purchase fencing if league representatives would volunteer to install it.
"We purchased fencing which measured 8-feet high and 61-feet long. We bought it using money from our treasury and we were reimbursed by the borough," according to Jim Herb, a coach for Tuscarora Coal and father of Danny.
Since May 15, local businesses and volunteers stepped forward to make donations, allowing the league to purchase eight sheets of treated plywood, each measuring 4 feet high by 8 feet wide and an inch thick, to further improve the structure, Correll said.
Donors included Maroons Sports Bar and Grill of Pottsville, C-Well Optical, Abdo's Furniture Outlet, Greg's Auto Collision Repair and Turkey Hill Minit Markets, all of Port Carbon, according to Correll.
The league will play a game at the field at 6 p.m. today. Tuscarora Coal's junior team will take on a team from Orwigsburg, Correll said.