TAKING A LOOK — Crews survey the site of Steubenville City School’s new softball and baseball fields on Stanton Boulevard Monday. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Groundbreaking is days away for Big Red’s new baseball and softball field complex on Stanton Boulevard.

The $2.5 million project, which will be home to the school’s softball and baseball programs, is expected to be ready for play in the spring.

Steubenville City Schools Superintendent Melinda Young said things have moved slowly up to now, primarily because they wanted to be sure they were in total compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and city regulatory standards for storm water runoff.

“It’s part of Permar’s Run and we wanted to make sure we did everything the right way,” she said, adding, “We had to comply with both federal and city regulations.”

So, in addition to the two retention ponds already on site, she said they’re adding two, large, new ones.

“The same people who did our drawings did all the drainage for the Laurels as well,” she noted.

“You’re looking at something very, very, very complex, the reason being it was very intricate, what had to be done,” Special Projects Director Mike Bauman said, adding in some ways it might feel like overkill “but it was not.”

He said the Stanton Boulevard site will give Steubenville City Schools a true athletic complex, since Harding Stadium and the practice field are adjacent.

“Before, neither the varsity boys or varsity girls had their own field,” he said. “Now they will. It will be a total complex for us, too — we’ll have the football field, practice fields and now the softball and baseball fields, all together. It’s going to be a centralized campus.”

Plans for the seven-acre site include dugouts, a press box, restrooms, a concession stand, bleachers and parking, along with well-drained turf fields. Young said the turf fields are “going to lead to a lot less cancellations, a lot less rescheduling of games” because they can be ready for game day within an hour of a big rain.

Big Red’s varsity boys and Catholic Central’s varsity boys had been using Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Vaccaro Field for their home games. The varsity girls played home games at North End ballfield as well as at the university, Bauman said.

Having their own fields will make scheduling easier for all three teams, Young said, and it also means they’ll be able to host tournament games, pointing out it would generate revenue for the city as well.

“I’m very excited,” Bauman said. “We’ve been (working) on it since May. We just want to get started.”