Brad Krommenhoek, who played third base and pitched at North High through 1990, has long seen the need for lights. He described some games that had to be called off in late innings due to dark conditions.

"It is a phenomenally big deal. It is generations in the making," Krommenhoek said.

The Sioux City Public Schools Foundation will announce Saturday that it has been awarded a $192,000 grant from the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, the grant program supported by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. The fund is designed to promote youth baseball and softball participation. 

The school district and private donors will provide additional funding for the project, which has an estimated cost of $600,000 to $650,000.

“Funding for baseball lights at our three Sioux City high schools has been 40 years in the making,” said Kari Treinen, Sioux City Public Schools Foundation executive director.

This summer, on days with varsity doubleheaders, the first games routinely began at 4 p.m., in order to get two games in before sunset.

The lights should be in place by next spring, in time for the next season. For Krommenhoek, that means he'll get to see his twin sons, Hunter and Hudson Krommenhoek, play their North senior seasons under the lights next summer.

"I'll get to enjoy the experience, night baseball, with my sons. I'll continue to go to more games (in following years)," he said.

All other city fields for outdoor sports have lighting, covering the sports of football, soccer and softball.

In November, the school board discussed financing for the baseball lights. The district will contribute $300,000 for the project, said Brian Fahrendholz, district's director of operations and maintenance. Additional funds will come from private local donors, including MidAmerican Energy, Scheels and Thompson Electric, and booster clubs for the three high school teams. Each team will put in $25,000.

"Everybody has their alma mater behind this," Krommenhoek said.

Musco Lighting, Inc. will install the lights for the three fields. The Oskaloosa, Iowa-based company has provided lights for a wide range of athletic venues, from college football stadiums tot he Dakota International Speedway, as well as the Statue of Liberty and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Cathy Bradley, executive director of the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, described Musco as a good partner for essential projects nationwide.

“On behalf of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, we thank the Sioux City Public Schools Foundation for spearheading this much-needed and long-awaited project to extend the use of the fields and allow more players to participate at the older age levels," Bradley said.

Each Sioux City baseball program has three teams, serving about 180 players, plus nine spring and fall league teams serving 100 players. Travel and community teams also may use the fields.

The Sioux City Public Schools Foundation is a non-profit organization created to support excellence in education for the Sioux City Community School District.

"We have students who are eating in the halls -- very, very cramped in that school," Director of Operations and Maintenance Brian Fahrendholz said.

The seven school board members in a Monday meeting acknowledged learning the details of planned five-year spending through the 2022-23 school year, from revenues arriving from two sources -- a Physical Plant and Equipment levy on property taxes, and a one-cent local option sales tax.

That pot of money can't be spent on instructional costs such as teacher salaries, but the district keeps close tabs on needed improvements to buildings. Therefore, district administrators each year present five-year plans on anticipated spending. The spending discussed Monday won't be made official for the first of five years, for 2018-19, until being adopted in spring 2018 for that year's budget.

Fahrendholz and Finance Director Patty Blankenship laid out the five-year plans.

The one-cent sales tax has been in place in the district dating to the 1990s, and is estimated to give $14.2 million in 2018-19.

A lot of the sales tax money, as has previously been recounted in board meetings, will go to build a new Bryant Elementary School by 2019 and Hunt Elementary School by 2022. The 2018-19 sales tax proposal directs $8.9 million for school construction, plus $500,000 in computer leases and $1.5 million in operating/maintenance costs.

Within those maintenance costs, Fahrendholz said the 2018-19 projects include a combined $275,000 for roof repairs at North High School and East Middle School, plus $200,000 for parking expansions at North and East high schools.

Yet another expense for 2018-19 is the long-sought quest to put lights for late games at the baseball fields at North, East and West high schools.  The estimated cost for the district is $300,000 -- school boosters will pay more of the full expense -- and Fahrendholz said the project is needed, because the failure to have lights has meant the district can't hold tourney games that set the field for the state finals.

Looking ahead to three years from 2021 to 2023, Fahrenholz said the time has come to add air conditioning to the three high school gymnasiums. He said that topic in prior years "raises eyebrows" in the public, but contended the high schools that date to the early 1970s need air conditioning to be modern.

The Physical Plant and Equipment money comes from a levy of 33 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, and gives about $880,000 per year.