Ludowici Community Foundation Park has new scoreboards

NEW LEXINGTON — Thanks to a grant, and support from area businesses, the Ludowici Community Foundation Park has installed new scoreboards for its youth athletic fields.

Ann Hankinson, human resources manager at Ludowici Roof Tile, wrote and obtained a grant from the Energy Cooperative to pay for the scoreboards. “Thanks to the combined efforts and generosity of STAR Engineering, Fiore Contracting, and Ludowici, we finally have our scoreboards up and working in the park,” she reported via email on May 8. “Not only is this a great addition to the ballfields but we now have a central location for electrical power, and a place to add bulletins and park/event information.”

Jeannette Addington, Ludowici’s chief financial officer, told The Perry County Tribune that the grant was for $9,252. Volunteers helped with installing them and hooking up electricity, and New Lexington’s STAR Engineering provided a donation for the frames on which the scoreboards sit.

Addington said the park’s baseball and softball fields are used for practices and games by various community and travel teams and the like, and that sometimes they will be used by local school teams when, for instance, their home field is undergoing maintenance.

In addition to showing game scores, as mentioned, the scoreboards will also serve as information billboards.

“We’re going to use that for community communication,” Addington confirmed. “Because if you remember we have splash pads out there, too, which are used a lot by the kiddos and their parents during the summer. So we’ll be putting communication on there for things that we have going on, or that Ludowici is involved with community-wide.”

The 160-acre Ludowici Community Foundation Park, located at 405 Black Gold Road, New Lexington, is open year-round, with its stated mission “to better serve the youth of Southeast Ohio by emphasizing physical fitness, environmental awareness, as well as civic responsibility.”

In addition to its athletic fields, it offers a five-acre lake; a shelter house that seats 80; hiking trails of varying lengths; three playground areas; a 300 square foot splash pad with seven fountains; and 10 acres of wooded wetlands. It is also the site of the Foundation’s annual Founder’s Day event.

Email at jphillips@perrytribune.com