Slow-pitch tourney puts fixes on fast track at Diamond Lakes
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - There’s some major progress to report on the beleaguered restrooms at Diamond Lakes Regional Park – a new date for completion and an event for the grand reopening.
In late September, the USSSA Military Worlds softball tournament will be coming to south Augusta.
With a projected economic impact of $3.3 million, it’s expected to bring 2,500 people, both national and internationally stationed, to Diamond Lakes and Fort Gordon – and all of them will need a place to make a pit stop.
“We’ve been in Augusta before and they rolled out the red carpet. They treated us like family, they understand how big of an event this is,” said Dustin Roberts, National Director of the Military Softball World Series. “It’s a family reunion. You have people who were stationed in together 20 years ago, and they saw somebody’s first child being born, then they go throughout their career in the military where they haven’t seen each other, and then they see that child again 20 years later.”
It will also be the first time south Augusta has held the event since 2017, but it stopped coming to south Augusta due to repairs at Diamond Lakes, as well as the pandemic.
Michelle Pippin, CEO of the Augusta Sports Council, said: “It actually starts two days after Ironman so it’s going to be a busy two weeks of sports tourism.”
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Diamond Lakes has been served only by some smelly portable outhouses while the problematic restrooms have been closed, but that’s about to change.
The city of Augusta pledged $850,000 to fix up the restrooms at Diamond Lakes in time for the summer season. That was after the city had spent $900,000 since 2018 trying to fix issues that date back to 2012.
Problems included pipes that had somehow gotten filled with objects and substances that weren’t supposed to be there. Some of it was suspected to have been epoxy that came from work that had been done before.
Ron Lampkin with Augusta/Richmond County Central Services says crews have had to replace all the piping to the restrooms and other facilities in the building with a tower-like structure.
Lampkin says the project was pushed over budget due to vandalism after people broke out windows inside the upper part of the building and flooded the inside with hydrant water.
“They broke into these doors, ran up the steps, bust the windows out up stairs, got the fire hydrant, sprayed it out all over here out on the deck,” said Lampkin.
In coming weeks – even in the next few days – crews are expected to lay in the utility lines for the toilets, which were missing from the walls this past weekend, and tile the vanity.
“So at this point, it’s basically cosmetic work that we’re doing now,” said Lampkin.
Not only can we expect excitement with sporting events coming to south Augusta, but the concession stands at the park will also open back up for the first time in years.
So far, about 100 teams have ed for tournament that will take place from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.
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