With Mayor Bill Euille, the City Council, outgoing City manager, Jim Hartman, and scores of other dignataries and local youth organizations in attendance, the ceremonial “first shovel” of dirt was turned over Saturday morning, March 12th at the Witter Field project site, only two blocks from Bishop Ireton at 2600 Witter Drive, Alexandria.
The new recreation area, one of the mitigation projects from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction, is funded entirely by federal and state transportation dollars to provide the City with two rectangular fields and a state-of-the-art natural grass regulation softball field. The addition of the rectangular fields addresses critical shortages of these fields for Alexandria. The artificial turf and lights will increase the City’s recreational resources by thousands of hours annually when the two rectangular fields and the softball diamond come on line in March, 2012.
Significantly, the rectangular fields will be available for Bishop Ireton on a regular basis during the School year in the all important 3-6pm timeframe. “This is a huge improvement for our athletic program and for our athletes.” said Bishop Ireton athletic director, Bill Simmons. “Witter Fields will be artificially turfed, they will be lit, they are two blocks from Ireton. They open up a lot of options and just the quality of the practice facilities available to us just make this one of the biggest physical improvements available to us since we brought artificial turf to Fannon Field in 2003. Any future expansion of our athletic program is tied to the success of, and access to, Witter Fields. ”
The softball diamond will be the final portion of the complex completed and will become the softball home of the TC Williams Titans. The natural grass will be laid in February, according to the construction schedule, and time will be required for the grass to “take”. With the modern drainage and sub surface, the softball field will be the jewel in the City’s softball field crown.