Cahill Park Fundraiser in Final Stage

Cahill Park may look like a giant dirt pit right now, but by October, the baseball field will be looking better than ever.

Friends of Bay Baseball are in the final stages of fundraising for the new baseball field, which will include an artificial turf infield, recessed dugouts, concrete bleachers and a new scoreboard. Additional funds are still needed for batting cages, a warmup mound and other pieces of equipment for the practice facility.

To contribute to the effort, you can purchase a fundraising brick, which will be installed behind the stadium seating. The donation deadline is June 15.

Donors who pay $100 will be able to have a maximum of 60 characters engraved on a 4-inch by 8-inch brick that will be installed behind the concrete stadium seating. Donors who pay $250 will be able to have a maximum of 120 characters engraved on a 8-inch by 8-inch brick.

Storm water management

The Cahill detention basin will create an eight- to nine-foot drop on the north end of the park. By allowing roughly 500,000 cubic feet of rain water to drain into the park, the basin would provide flood relief to at least 100 homes in the southern half of the village.

After 24 to 48 hours in the retention basin, the rain water would drain southward through a recessed passageway and empty into the storm sewer at Sheffield Avenue, then through a Hampton storm sewer before eventually discharging into the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park.

With the Cahill plan and new pipe upgrades in place, the village's southwestern drainage basin – which can currently manage 2.6 inches in a 24-hour period – would then be able to handle 3.6 inches in a 24-hour period, or 5.9 inches in a 24-hour period with street ponding.