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Scranton receives five bids for cricket pitch project

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Scranton received five bids for a proposed project to build a cricket pitch at Chic Feldman Field in Pine Brook, with a Monroe County firm submitting the lowest of the five, city Controller John Murray said and video of the bid opening shows.

The city solicited the bids late last month shortly before announcing the project, which includes construction of the cricket pitch in the area of the existing softball field at the Pine Brook park targeted for rejuvenation. The bat-and-ball game is played on a generally oval-shaped field with the pitch at the center, the pitch being a rectangular area where much of the game’s action happens.

Plans for the project materialized after members of the Scranton Cricket Club approached Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti about the prospect of creating a designated pitch, an idea that excited the mayor. She touted the project last month as complementing Scranton’s existing recreational amenities and park offerings and as an opportunity for cultural exchange with members of the city’s Indian community, among whom the sport is popular.

“It’s been great to work with the Scranton Cricket Club, our Parks Department and Reilly Associates to get this project off the ground,” Cognetti said in a recent news release. “Cricket is the world’s second most popular sport, so adding it to our many sports on offer at Scranton parks is an opportunity for our kids to try something new, and for our growing Indian community to share their culture with the rest of the City.”

Reilly Associates, the city’s engineering firm, completed the engineering for the project; the cricket club plans to import an official cricket turf from India for use at the field, a donation worth about $10,000 to $15,000, city officials said. The city solicited bids for removal of the softball backstop and infield soil, replacing the topsoil and grass there and installing the asphalt cricket pitch with subsurface drainage, the news release said.

Sealed bids for that work were due May 15. The five the city received came from: Xavier Landscapes and Design Inc., $53,290; Wayco Inc., $57,987.50; Don Scartelli Construction Services and General Contractors Inc., $61,888; B.T. Adams LLC, $63,296.75; and Chilewski Enterprises, $69,777.

The bids are currently under review. Scranton would pay for the cricket pitch project cost through the city’s capital budget, officials said.

Video of the recent bid opening is available online via ECTV’s YouTube channel.