Oakville High School’s baseball fields will get a facelift this  fall after the Mehlville Board of Education unanimously approved a bid for field improvements at its meeting June 10.

The board unanimously approved a $508,077 base bid from Byrne & Jones Construction for improvements at the main OHS baseball fields, named after longtime coach Rich Sturm. The project is covered through Proposition S bond issue funding.

“It’s gonna be an upgrade. We’re gonna regrade the field, redo drainage. Connecting some of the sewer lines,” said Facilities Director Mike Gegg. “We’re going to use the existing dugouts but do a little work to them. New fencing … a new irrigation system.”

Extremely high bids for renovations at Mehlville High School’s baseball fields have pushed that project back to a later date. That project is more complicated since the baseball field will be moved behind the softball field.

“The left field would actually overlap the softball field a little bit, so that fence will be a movable fence … That work includes all new dugouts, all new fencing, backstop, retention basin, irrigation, sidewalks. It’s a lot more work” than Oakville, said Gegg.

Gegg told the board that to try to save money on the MHS baseball field, that bid will be combined with the bid packages for the district’s new Prop S-funded transportation building. The district plans to go out to bid for that next summer.