A Very Special Facility
By Ken Peterson
Pilot Sports
LAKEVILLE -- On the north end of Lakeville at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Ind. 4, a very big and special facility is being built.
When it's completed, it should be the best place for area kids to play youth sports.
It's Newton Park, located near the old Lakeville High School. It was the dream of Hoosier Tire owners Bob and Joyce Newton.
The facility will be fully operational by 2004 and will include:
�Two baseball diamonds
�Two softball diamonds
�Two regulation soccer fields
�Two football/soccer fields
�Children's playground area
�Ice skating pond
�Picnic area
�A scenic one-mile walking path
�Concession areas
�Restroom facilities
�Paved parking
All the fields have Musco Company lights, the top sports lighting company in the country and the ones responsible for the lights at Notre Dame Stadium.
The Newton's have given back to the Lakeville community before, helping restore the old high school. This project, he said, had one specific goal in mind.
"I bought the (Newton Park) property not wanting something bad to go in there," Bob Newton said. "We wanted to leave something for the kids. Our philosophy is that you've got to get these kids off the street. We've got to do something for these kids. It's all about the kids."
He and his wife put together the park's mission statement, which states the park was built for fun and to help prepare children to become better citizens of their community.
A concern Newton had was kids didn't have enough good places to play their
games.
"With soccer and baseball, there isn't enough good places to play," he said. "Soccer mainly started the thing. Now it has grown to soccer, football and the baseball diamonds. They were playing on the sides of the hills and in little fields and anywhere that they can. Girls leagues haven't had an option because there isn't enough places to play because there is no place to play. This is something that we wanted to do and we wanted to do this ourselves."
With the exception of one donor, all of the money for this project has come from the Newton's.
And it's become a big part of his life.
"I've spent three summers building the fields," Newton said. "Everybody was wondering what we had done and we hadn't said much about it."
Those three years were spent leveling the ground off and putting the sprinkling system in, the storm system and four six-inch wells.
"When (LaVille Athletic Director) Jeff Ziegler first brought people out here to play, he was just flabbergasted at the grass," Newton said.
The ultimate goal of the project, currently in the fourth year of a five-year plan, is to donate the facility to LaVille High School. A not-for-profit organization was formed, so donations can be accepted for tax purposes, he said.
Newton Park will have the capabilities to host events never before held at LaVille High School, including postseason tournaments.
"They can host venues that they've never been able to host before," Newton
said.
There will be aluminum bleachers at all fields and speaker systems everywhere.
Another plus is the ice skating pond.
"We do have a control to lower or raise it (the pond)," Newton said. "We can lower it to two feet so mothers won't be concerned about their kids drowning.
The parking lot can hold 250 cars. And Newton saw first hand the appeal of the facility in a youth football game last season, one of the first events held there.
"The last thing we played (last season) was football," he said. "We had a 250 car parking lot and a 100 car (adjacent) parking lot and we played on three fields at the same time."
Another feature will be the "Golden Dome" building that will allow scorekeepers to work from the press box along with a concession stand and restrooms.
Newton and his group were able to work this winter in getting ahead of the project, equivalent to working another year.
He wants to have a security group of volunteers wearing green shirts to help make it safe.
And it will continue to be a work in progress as long as the Newton's have a say.
"We need something to draw people down here and move down here and live down here," Newton said. "It's more than an athletic field. It's going to be a training field. We want the kids to get more out of this than just playing games. We want to teach them how to pick up their trash and it's going to be a secure place for the kids. �(People) are going to have to go someplace else to find a place like this."
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