Robbie Gould Youth Sports Complex site work taking shape

RecordStaffAugust 3, 2022Last Updated: August 3, 2022

1 minute read

CASTANEA, PA – “Build it and they will come,” one of the memorable lines from the classic baseball film Field of Dreams. After a COVID-related delay, the Chestnut Grove Recreation Authority is now in the process of building its Robbie Gould Youth Sports Complex, a massive undertaking between the Lock Haven By-pass and Bald Eagle Creek in Castanea Township. Backers anticipate youth baseball players from all over will come to such a regional sports complex.

From the left, Dan Vilello from contributor Sons of Italy, Chestnut Grove authority vice-chairman/Gould Foundation member Jim Russo, Chestnut Grove authority chairman Marci Orndorf, Steve Gibson from project engineer McTish Kunkle, and Max Persun, Operations Manager from the Wayne Township Landfill.

Project volunteers gathered at the site on Tuesday to review blueprints leading to the installation of multiple youth baseball fields; this while earthmoving equipment from the Wayne Township Landfill, as an in-kind donation, was continuing with utility installation for the park’s East Site. Marci Orndorf, chairman of the recreation authority, said utility work should be completed in another month.

Bidding for field development will follow, Orndorf told therecord-online. She said the authority has been approved for a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Bid specifications must meet DCNR requirements to obtain the grant, so project principals gathered Tuesday to chart a path forward for the better than $1 million project.

Orndorf said it may not be realistic to expect the project to be bid and completed this fall, but the east side site should be done by next spring. The project was first proposed in 2017. COVID delayed the process, Orndorf said, what she described as a supply chain issue in obtaining the piping needed for utility work.

So far project supporters have raised close to a million dollars, buoyed by word of the $300,000 grant from DCNR and a $200,000 2021 commitment from NFL kicking star and Lock Haven native Robbie Gould. At the time of his pledge announcement last year, Gould talked of the involvement of his Goulden Touch Foundation, already a major contributor to Chestnut Grove, which is to include three Little League-sized fields, to serve as a site for regional events. Speaking to the Clinton County Economic Partnership last year, he said the completed facility would “give kids an opportunity…teaching about life and yourself.”

Orndorf said community members who wish to donate to the project may make contact with the authority through its Facebook page at Chestnut Grove Recreation Authority.