By Ken Stern 

Maple ballfield demolition complete

 

August 4, 2021

THE END OF ONE ERA STARTS A NEW ONE – The Maple Avenue ballpark – called Hedlin’s Ballfield by some – has passed into history. Last Wednesday and Thursday, July 28-29, its structures were torn down, the chain link fences rolled up, their posts stacked and all was hauled away, as demolition or for recycling. By the end of August work will begin to layout Landed Gentry’s 10 home Maple Field subdivision. – Photo by Ken Stern

The development of the 10 home Maple Field subdivision began Wednesday July 25, with knocking down – demolishing – the backstop, dugouts, fencing and storage shed of the Maple Avenue ballpark. Shortly after 1 p.m. excavator construction equipment and a truck carrying a 40 yard dumpster pulled onto the property. By the end of the afternoon, the eastside fence and structures were pulled down and the debris hauled away.

La Conner little leaguers played on the field this spring. All evidence of the season has been hauled away. The Hedlin’s Family Farm sign stays, but the property they sold to the Town of La Conner is about to be totally transformed. Lautenbach Recycling was hired to strip the field clean. The piles of steel fencing will be recycled. The excavator operator pulled down all poles. The open jaws of the machine were not to be denied.

The equipment shed was the last structure to go. First the roof was lifted off, then the walls. The shovel operator expertly picked up various items left by the little league, including a set of bases. All was stuffed into the dumpster.

The bases left behind, in the equipment shed went to the dumpster. The bases in the field remain for the moment. Souvenir anyone? Around 3 p.m. only the Kiwanis plaque recognizing their gift to the baseball playing kids of La Conner was left behind. The shed and other improvements they funded were hauled away, as by Mr. Peabody’s coal train.

Lautenbach Recycling staff were back early Thursday, removing and rolling up the chain link fence along Maple Avenue that had been festively adorned with mementos, icons and symbolic hearts and a R.I.P. By 10:30 a.m. all evidence, except for second base, had been removed. The field next to Hedlin’s Family Farm is empty now. A 24,000 square foot town park will occupy the north corner, near this sign. Ten homes will be built as Landed Gentry’s Maple Fields subdivision over the next 12 to 18 months.

 

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