Once a Hilltop, Someday a Baseball Field

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — Contractor Glenn O. Hawbaker is making progress as the Centre County firm continues to remove fill from what was once a large knoll off Keystone Central Drive northwest of Central Mountain High School.

The fill is transported to the First Quality Tissue plant in Castanea Township, part of an expansion there. For the Keystone Central School District the project means a level area will be provided for a future baseball field and parking lot for Central Mountain High School.

The school district earlier this year approved an agreement to provide the fill at no cost to Hawbaker or First Quality in return for providing the district a level area for a future ball field.

While the financially-strapped school district has no short-term plans to develop the site, school board member Jeff Johnston suggested at the recent school board meeting that an effort should be made to get the parents of current Keystone Little League players involved in pursuit of building the new high school field “sooner rather than later.”

Johnston and other board members praised the work the Hawbaker firm is doing in preparing the site at no cost to the district for future development.

First Quality needs the fill to elevate a portion of its Castanea Township site above the 500 year flood plain to provide the base for a third tissue manufacturing facility. Special traffic provisions were put into effect at Central Mountain High School earlier this spring while the excavation work is carried out at the high school site.