Current conditions unavailable
The Centralia City Council approved a contract with the Washington state Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) to accept a $1,000,050 grant for replacement of the Borst Park Softball Complex stadium lights.
The contract was approved unanimously during the council’s Tuesday night meeting.
Staff will go out to bid for the project in the first quarter of 2026 before beginning construction in August 2026. Therefore, the stadium lights will not be ready for the 2026 spring softball season.
In 2023, the city removed stadium lights at the softball complex due to the rotten condition of the wooden poles. Subsequently, staff successfully wrote grants to replace the stadium lights.
The total project cost will be approximately $1.5 million, and the RCO grant contract describes $450,000 in financial obligation from the city. This obligation includes $250,000 received for the project from TransAlta and an estimated savings of $200,000 in contracted project costs by having the city light department assist with installation of the poles and the parks department assist with trenching to lay conduit.
The stadium lights, or lack thereof, came under scrutiny in May when the 2B District 4 softball championship game between Pe Ell-Willapa Valley and Raymond-South Bend was suspended due to darkness after six innings. The two teams met again the next afternoon and picked up play in the top of the seventh inning, with Raymond-South Bend prevailing 16-12.
