Mayor Honea, Councilmember John Officer, Councilmember Patti Comerford, Councilmember Roxanne Ziegler and Town Manager Terry Rozema cut the ribbon on new fields with the Marana Little League Junior Softball Team in Gladden Farms
Watch the full ribbon-cutting ceremony
Gladden Farms baseball and softball fields ribbon-cutting recap
MARANA- The Gladden Farms baseball and softball fields are officially open to the public!
The Town of Marana held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new fields on Friday, March 1, 2024 at 6 p.m.
“We’ve been waiting for these fields to open for quite awhile. The fields have been here for awhile, but adding the fencing and the lighting just takes them to another level so we can serve the community much better, said Parks & Recreation Deputy Director Wayne Barnett.
“These fields to this town really mean a lot. They’ll be able to start using these fields at night for the very first time giving us so many reservation hours that they weren’t able to have before, it’s just going to allow us to have so many more sports out on these fields,” said Sports Recreation Supervisor Jacob Jaeger.
Parks & Recreation Director Jim Conroy said the Town first identified the need for improvements at the two fields about five years ago, but faced some challenges with cost throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, with the help of Mayor & Council and the Public Works CIP Division, Conroy said the Town was able to overcome those challenges to open these fields.
“These two fields they’ll have 600 reservations annually as we go into the next 12 months so we just feel terrific about it and heightening our ability to serve the youth of our community,” said Parks & Recreation Director Jim Conroy.
The fields will also be used for Little League games for boys and girls. One team already planning to use the fields is the Marana Little League Junior Softball Team. The West Regional Champions were also recognized at the grand opening event.
“It was really special to be able celebrate these young ladies. They represent the Town in tremendous fashion so to be able to have them to share in this opening with us is really special because they’re going to be playing on these fields for years,” said Barnett.
“This is pretty awesome. We’ve lived in Gladden Farms for ten years and ever since my girls were super little we were always on this field and now to see it as a professional field, it’s pretty sweet to see,” said Marana Little League Junior Softball Coach Chris Beck.
Mayor Honea & Town Manager Terry Rozema with the Marana Little League West Regional Champions
