As Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field, or once known as “City Field” reaches its 80th anniversary, the West Bend Baseball Association is looking to modernize the ballpark for the next 80 years with a renovation effort to update all key aspects of the current Carl M. Kuss Field facility.

The project was first discussed in its beginning stages in late 2011 by West Bend Baseball Association members Craig Larsen, Cathy Lawton, and Mike Staral. Which was once a part of a grander idea of modernizing multiple assets within Regner Park, was paired down quickly in mid 2012 to just include Carl M. Kuss Field.

The initial plan was simple, modernize the current facility to bring back all levels of baseball, but to make Carl M. Kuss Field into a true multi-purpose space for all citizens.

Interest was heavy in making the project a reality but the amount that had to be raised and discussions over the current grandstand made the West Bend Baseball Association move forward cautiously, to make sure the community, city government, school district, and community stakeholders all had a say and a consensus on how to move forward.

West Bend Baseball Association’s Craig Larsen approached one of West Bend’s City Matriarch’s Prudence Pick Hway to gain her blessing on the project. The current grandstand was donated, relocated, and reassembled by the Pick family. Pick Hway gave her blessing and wanted to have an active role assisting the WBBA in the current project.

Once Pick Hway, approved the project Larsen’s next step was meeting with other of the city’s non-profits and work with their grant writers on how to move forward working through the fundraising and grant writing processes.

After filling out multiple grants both locally and nationally, the WBBA, received a boost thanks to American Construction Services, owned by then City of West Bend mayor Kraig Sadownikow, when they provided the first renderings of the potential renovations.

In early 2018, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association announced the end of the sponsored summer season for West Bend East and West Bend West High Schools, requiring a shift to the sponsored spring season.

The decision created a new sense of urgency as West Bend has a lack of fields capable of hosting the number of teams needed to play in March and April.

West Bend East and West Bend West athletic directors applied for funding and support from a national organization. In March of 2018, that application was approved for $500,000 of matching funding.

In June of 2018, then West Bend West Athletic Director Brian Heimark, and then West Bend School District School Board President Joel Ongert worked with the West Bend School District Board and matched the City of West Bend Common Council’s $100,000 pledge.

For the remainder of 2018, Prudence Pick Hway and Craig Larsen continued to raise funding.

In November of 2018, the project secured a $500,000 donation from West Bend Mutual Insurance Charitable Foundation as they celebrated their 125th anniversary.

In just a few months Larsen, Pick Hway, and West Bend business icon Jeff Szukalski secured project changing donations. The trio was able to raise $1.1 million dollars thanks to the generosity of local foundations, businesses, and public entities, becoming one of the first truly public/private projects in the City of West Bend.

Project work was expected to begin in December of 2018 with a completion date of June 2019 expected however delays occurred that cause significant delays in the project due to a deteriorating relationship with the national organization. It seemed like for a time in 2019 and parts of 2020 that the project would not move forward.

The COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 caused further delays in the project, however in the summer of 2020, Kraig Sadownikow had officially joined the WBBA and brought a new breath of badly needed fresh air to the project. Sadownikow and Larsen reenvisioned the project plans, opting for a hybrid surface, making some changes to the field dimensions, and redesigning the grandstand to bring the project into a more realistic goal.

In late September, 2020, it seemed like the project was ready to start, and the project went for approval in front of the City of West Bend Common Council. As WBBA members Kraig Sadownikow, Prudence Pick Hway, and Craig Larsen presented the plans to the council, at the same time, the WBBA and the City of West Bend found out that the relationship with the foundation they were aligned with was completely ending. It was a body blow to the WBBA.

Thankfully, a group of committed community members and leaders refused to let the project fail. Mike Staral rejoined the effort to help energize the effort. Mike, along with City Administrator Jay Shambeau worked tirelessly with Pick Hway, Sadownikow, Szukalski, Mueller, and Larsen of the WBBA to help push this project forward to the starting point.

Finally a donation in early 2021 that along with a major assist by new contractor Tim Horswill of H&H Civil Construction, the project officially broke ground on March 4, 2021 with an expected completion date of phase 1 in Fall of 2021.

The project was completed and keys were turned over to the City of West Bend and West Bend Baseball Association on November 1, 2021.

After a delay in the start of the season, in 2022 due to establishment of the natural surface, the official groundbreaking took place May 26, 2022, with the first game played on the facility being played between West Bend East and West Bend West High Schools.

Phase 1B and Phase 2 took significant steps forward in the fall of 2022, when donations were secured for the bullpens. In January of 2023, the WBBA secured enough funding to complete the lighting for the field in time for the 2023 season.