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Pete.....2 years ago I was asked to be the UIC of a PONY league tournament and after hearing and experiencing the lack of facilities for Umpires I was able to do this. Under the press box of my local league was 2 equipment rooms....one big and one small.....now during the off-season the big room was full with equipment, but now during the season it was empty.. We cleaned the room out and painted it white (all we had...donated)....we put in a bench, an old clothes rack from a church rummage sale, a flourescent light fixture from a members garage replaced the one naked light bulb.... one of our members (a plumber) put in a tap in the water line that ran to an adjacent bathroom...the door was locked by Me and I carried the key....we painted the door blue and stenciled UMPIRES ONLY on the door....now all we did was convert a storage closet basically, but it was big enough to hold 4 umpires.. 2 coming, 2 going....give them a place to go between games, and a place to dress, and leave the equipment in safe hands....Cant tell you the comments we recieved...some of our Umpires who have called State playoff games said they hadnt had such good facilities.......and all it was was a storage shed....2 gallons of white paint...one quart of blue, some donated items...a few hours of member work......it has been the best thing we have done.....now the dressing room is back to being an equipment storage area, but come next spring.....a little wash down....we are ready for tournaments...........
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