Posted on December 1, 2023
The Carol Stream Park District’s McCaslin Park is home to a cricket field. The field is located just northeast of Coyote Crossing Mini Golf. The American Cricket Conference of players were often seen playing on the field for hours.
Over time, the field started sloping up to a clear drop-off of about 18 inches. This meant that from east to west there was an 18-inch change in the grade which wasn’t conducive for competitive and safe game play. In agreement with the American Cricket Conference, their 2023 season would have to be moved from McCaslin Park in order for us to get the project going.
We needed a good amount of dirt to level out the sloping; and as good stewards of park district dollars, the District sought out ways to obtain dirt at no cost for recycling.
The Park District started the Bierman Park/Heritage Lake trail restoration early September of 2022. We transported the dirt removed from that project to extra land at the southwest end of the cricket field. You might have seen those dirt mounds driving by from North Avenue. The trail was completed by November 2022. The District then applied for the permit in DuPage County to grade the cricket field, receiving it in April of 2023.
Grading the cricket field took the months of June and July of 2023. We used various equipment such as skid sterrs, excavators and road graders. Then rocks were extracted to smooth out the dirt. In September of 2023, parks staff seeded the field. It took thirty 50-pound bags of seed. Now we wait for the seed to grow and thicken, which can take a couple seasons depending on the weather. The decision to allow cricket play back on the field will be determined in June of 2024.
