Bad weather tests nerves at ballpark groundbreak

Brian Bannister took one look at the deep mud surrounding the site of the groundbreaking for Reno's new AAA ballfield and threw his truck into four-wheel-drive.

Bannister, whose Hillbilly Kettle Korn vending trailer distributed popcorn to the groundbreaking crowd, wasn't alone in seeking extra traction.

Faced with mud and puddles of melting snow only hours before last week's groundbreaking event was scheduled to begin, organizers frantically began work before the sun was up to get things looking presentable.

With the event scheduled for last Monday, planner Jim Bauserman of The Bauserman Group in Reno had been watching weather reports closely through the week leading up to the groundbreaking.

Like many longtime residents, Bauserman didn't entirely believe forecasts of rain with maybe a little snow.

"But as luck would have it, they were right this time," Bauserman says with a sigh.

Six inches of wet snow dumped onto the site of the new ballfield near Second Street and Evans Avenue less than 48 hours before the groundbreaking. And with less than 24 hours to go, bright sunshine melted the snow but didn't dry the mud.

As the day of groundbreaking dawned, crews from Reno's Diversified Concrete Cutting were furiously at work, trying to get the site into shape.

Diversified, which has the demolition contract to prepare the site for construction, began pushing and hauling some of the soup-like mud away from the location of the festivities, says Ken Mercurio, president of the construction company.

As the sun began rising, and with the 11 a.m. start of the groundbreaking approaching rapidly, Diversified hauled in about a dozen truckloads of decomposed granite and drain rock to build up the walkways from nearby parking lots to the groundbreaking site.

"Everybody was a little nervous," says Mercurio. "If you'd seen that site at 7 in the morning, you wouldn't have believed what it was at 11."

There was time enough, for an extra little touch: The groundbreaking scene was set up as a baseball diamond. A crew from Soil Tech came by and sprayed a green-tinted mulch over the mud to create something reminiscent of outfield grass.

With minutes to go, employees of The Bauserman Group rolled green carpeted walks across the newly delivered decomposed granite, and more than 200 people came out to watch the ceremonial first shovels of dirt.

And as they soaked up the winter sun, hardly any of them looked at the dry rocks below their feet.