Journey Bank Park at Historic Bowman Field is getting a new chainlink outfield fence and it isn’t costing the City of Williamsport, as the city administration under Mayor Derek Slaughter continues to seek grant funds to upgrade and improve the historic sports stadium.

The home to the Williamsport Crosscutters of the Major League Draft League is getting the fence installed in a $574,000 contract approved by City Council with WG Land Co. LLC, a company near Somerset with an extensive resume of upgrading sports stadiums, according to Bill Scott, city engineer.

The work will include an alternate bid for installing an under drain for the entire length of the wall, Scott noted for council.

Additionally, two new foul poles were provided courtesy of BAM and MLB, he said.

The contract is paid for with a state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Sports Marketing and Tourism Grant, he said.

Councilman Jon Mackey, chairman of the public safety committee, asked Scott if this job was supposed to be done last year and what was the hold up.

Scott told Mackey and council the bids came in much higher – estimated at $200,000 – and the city tried to quickly get it into the schedule late last year.

Through Scott’s stated experience with such tight bidding and contracts he recognized the bids would be high. “That’s what happens,” he said.

Instead, the city administration did not accept the bids and rebid the project.

Another question from Mackey regarded the padding that goes over the fence to protect the players.

Scott Livermore, director of the city department of public works, said the department is working closely with BAM and MLB along with the Crosscutters organization on that. Apparently, if what Livermore recently told council is accurate, they would give the city what was put up for the MLB Classic game between the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets — both of which are in the 2025 post-season.

MLB is changing its standards, Livermore said he was told. “So,” he added, “the pads wouldn’t work.”

Livermore added the city is working with the Crosscutters on how the sponsorships can be put on the padding, whether it is a banner that would go over the top of the padding, or whatever is decided on, he told council.

If the city public works crews were to have to take the pads off it would be much more work, he said. Instead, they are being engineered to be five inches off the ground so the city crews would not have to remove them.

Mackey asked the price of a MLB foul pole, a question that did not receive an immediate response. However, Livermore also noted how the poles will be bolted to the existing foundation.

Councilwoman Bonnie Katz, chair of the city public works committee, asked city officials if they were going after any other grants for the ballfield.

This work includes state appropriations obtained through the efforts of state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, and state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, Valerie Fessler, executive director of the city department of community and economic development, said.

She said that she and Melanie Shutt, city grants administrator, were also working on the next Sports Marketing and Tourism DCED grant cycle as it is open again and the city will be applying for it.