New Hope Plans Lighted Field Renovations Around Osprey Nest
The stage was set last week for the first night of baseball for the season at Lighted Field in New Hope, that city’s only lighted ball field.
Four new light poles with new lights stand in the outfield at Lighted Field in New Hope, alongside an older pole with an osprey nest on top.
An offseason’s worth of renovations–leveling in the infield and outfield, a new batting cage, a shored-up pitcher’s mound–are all for the players’ benefit. Add to that new lighting.
“We retrofitted the field to have new LED lights,” said New Hope Recreation Supervisor Aaron Thelen. “So, less spillage, very cost-saving, very energy-efficient, so we also did that this past year, too. We’re excited for a new summer to implement all these things out in the field.”
The new lights all sit atop new poles, but crews left one of the old poles up in left center.
An osprey–with a fish in its talons–lands at a nest built atop an old light pole at Lighted Field in New Hope.
“We actually left the pole and de-commissioned the light system, so the lights don’t work there anymore,” said Thelen.
Atop the old pole sits a massive osprey nest.
“We left the nest, just because it’s such a great feature and such a unique piece in the park system, to be able to have an osprey that comes back each year,” Thelen said.
The pair of osprey have been active this spring so far, and there’s hope they’re getting ready to welcome babies very soon.
“One of the options we could have done is taken down the pole and put up a new nest,” said Thelen, who said his staff consulted with New Hope’s animal control officer along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “But it just wasn’t the same.”
