On Tuesday, March 12, the Park District of Highland Park celebrated the Jeff Fox Field Groundbreaking at Larry Fink Memorial Park.

The new state-of-the art field will more than triple the number of usable hours of the field each year and reduce the cost of maintenance by more than 50% every year over its projected 10-year lifespan. Hundreds of hours of play are lost each year due to flooding of the current field.

This project is part of a larger Park District Athletic Fields Master Plan, which includes long-term plans to renovate the athletic fields at Larry Fink Park, Danny Cunniff Park and Sunset Woods Park. The Park Board approved naming the new ballpark Jeff Fox Field, after longtime Highland Park resident Jeff Fox. It’s a wonderful story of how much the park, especially baseball, meant to Jeff and his family. You can read it here.

The $1.02 million project is fund with $500,000 from the Park District’s Capital Fund and the remainder from community donations through the Giants Athletic Boosters, an affiliate of the Parks Foundation of Highland Park. The new field is anticipated to be completed in Summer 2024. Learn more about the project here.