Wyoma Little League to turn on the lights

What’s Broadway without lights?Volunteers have been busy the last few weeks helping lay the groundwork for the installation of lights at the Charlie Reinfuss Field, home of the Wyoma Little League’s Major League baseball program.Two of the light poles are already up with two more to go, according to Wyoma President Tony Luciano. Although there has been talk of putting up lights at the field for some time, everything started to come together back in April, Luciano said.The total cost to light the Wyoma Square field and the softball field inside the Great Woods Road entrance to Lynn Woods is about $120,000. The money to light the baseball field has come through fundraising with a couple of local businesses, Solimine Funeral Homes and Salvy the Florist, each donating $10,000 to get things going.The league has raised an additional $20,000 toward the $60,000 total, in part through the sale of advertising banners. There is room for six advertising banners on each post. Businesses can donate $2,500 for a banner, which will stay up for 10 years. Sixteen of the 24 have already been sold.”I wasn’t sure if we would get it done this year,” Luciano said. “I knew we would get it done, I just wasn’t sure how quick.”Luciano said they’re hoping to have the lights ready to go in another week or two. He said they ordered the lights at the end of May and they got delivered last Thursday.”We had a company line up to be here to put them in,” he said.Luciano said the league got permission from the park commission and met with neighbors in the Meadows Court senior housing complex adjacent to the field.Wyoma hosted the Little League state tournament in 1989 and 2001, but after 2001, Luciano said they were told they couldn’t host again without lights. This year, Wyoma will be hosting the Little League sectionals (12-year olds) July 17-20. Prior to that, the league will host the 10-year-old sectionals July 10-13.Luciano said he’s hoping that with the addition of lights, maybe they’ll be able to start weekday games a little later, possibly starting at 6:15 p.m., to give parents a chance to get home from work and get dinner before rushing down to the field. He also envisions some Friday and Saturday night baseball games.”This gives us a lot of opportunities and a lot more flexibility getting the younger kids using the field,” he said.Luciano expects the softball lights to go in by the fall. The money for those lights is in the city FY14 budget, he said.A considerable amount of work has been done on the softball field in recent years. The girls have a skin infield now, along with a clubhouse/concession stand and roofed dugouts. Softball numbers in the city have been on the slide with the other four leagues in the city all combining for one league. Wyoma participates in interleague play with those teams. Luciano said Wyoma has offered to run one softball program that would serve the entire city, but that would be up to the district administrator and the other leagues. Wyoma Little League is the largest in the city with about 400 players.Joyce Erekson can be reached at [email protected].