Cedar Boulevard's Ballfields Close for Winter as the Rink and the Bubble Take Over

Starting Monday, October 26, the parking lot beside Clint Seymour Field on Cedar Boulevard will be closed. Two weeks later, Middle Field and Seymour Field close as well. Their batting cages close with them, since the township treats the cages as part of the construction site. Mt. Lebanon timed its $3.9 million renovation of the two ballfields for the stretch of the year when the complex's activity is already moving indoors. The Frank Gill Ice Rink has been running its fall and winter schedule since September, and the Racket Center's tennis bubble went up October 5.

The municipality says the schedule "has been optimized to allow for construction that will provide disruption to the least number of field users." Recreation staff have been in touch with local sports organizations about the timing. Between now and spring, most people who use the complex will run into the project in the parking lot, not on the calendar.

The dates that matter between now and spring

Commissioners approved the project on September 8. They took the base bid plus all three add-on options the township put out for bids, at a total of $3.9 million. The township says that is within budget, and the money comes from its recent bond issue. The turf was expected to last eight years. With heavy preventive maintenance, the municipality got 13 years out of it, so this replacement is about five years later than the turf's expected lifespan.

Here is the sequence the township posted:

1. Monday, October 26. Construction begins and the Seymour parking lot closes. The lot between Middle Field and Dixon stays open.
2. Through November 9. Both fields stay open for play.
3. November 9. The fields and batting cages close, and work on the field lighting begins.
4. End of 2026. The new parking lot and site work should be substantially complete, except for landscaping and paving. The lighting work has the same target.
5. Winter/spring 2027. Turf replacement, depending on the weather. Crews will remove the old turf and clay mound, then install new synthetic turf, rubber infill and field lines. The existing stone base and curb stay unless fencing work requires otherwise.

The two-week gap between the lot closing and the fields closing matters for anyone with a practice or game on the calendar in early November. The fields are open those two weeks, but the Seymour lot is not. Anyone driving to Seymour Field in that window should plan on the lot between Middle Field and Dixon.

Veterans Day falls inside the work window

Mt. Lebanon's Veterans Day Ceremony is set for Wednesday, November 11, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial, 900 Cedar Boulevard. The keynote speaker is Dr. Susan Gillette Meer, State Regent of the Pennsylvania Society, Daughters of the American Revolution.

The ceremony comes two days after the fields close and the lighting crews start. The Seymour lot will have been closed for more than two weeks by then. Anyone who usually parks there for municipal events at this end of Cedar Boulevard should allow extra time that afternoon.

Indoors, the season is already running

The Frank Gill Ice Rink's Fall/Winter 2026-27 public skating schedule is long enough to fill a week:

The weekend rates also apply on holidays and on "School's Out" days. Skate rental is $4 and sharpening is $8. The rink is closed November 24 and December 25. It runs limited hours on December 24 from noon to 3 p.m., on December 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on January 1 from noon to 3 p.m. Skate aids are not allowed on the ice during public sessions. The rink's staff line is (412) 561-4363.

Down the boulevard, the Racket Center's 2026-27 bubble season runs from October 5, 2026, through April 11, 2027. The courts are open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, but the center may close early on evenings with no reservations. Courts are booked in half-hour slots through CourtReserve. Walk-up rates are $32 an hour regular and $38 prime, and subscribers pay $29 and $35. That makes the bubble season a near-match for the ballfield project: it went up three weeks before construction starts and comes down about when the turf work is scheduled to finish.

What the parking lot turns into

The lot work is the part of the project people will notice most this winter, and it is also where the township made its biggest changes. Under the base bid, the lot beside Seymour Field grows from 33 spaces to 40. It also gets new accessible parking, bike racks, concrete paving with bollards, a rain garden to collect stormwater, landscaping, and conduit for the lighting phase. The Seymour outfield fence is replaced as part of the same work.

The first add-on adds a "Loop Road," a paved road around the lot. The township says its purpose is better traffic flow and fewer backups on Cedar Boulevard. Because commissioners approved every add-on, the Loop Road is part of the plan.

The other two add-ons are about seating and access at the fields:

• At Seymour Field: a replacement retaining wall and backstop, accessible bleachers, and tall netting in front of the dugouts and along the third-base line.
• At Middle Field: a new sidewalk along the back of the field linking the parking area to Middle Field, hillside seating beside Cedar Boulevard, accessible bleachers and tall netting.

The lights are designed to stay on the field

The lighting work beginning November 9 will matter most to the streets around the fields. Middle Field's four existing poles are getting LED fixtures, and Seymour Field gets five new sports-lighting poles with new wiring. All of the lights can be programmed remotely over a wireless connection. The township says the system will meet municipal photometric standards, "which means the lighting will be kept to the field itself instead of spilling over to neighboring properties."

Since the work is meant to be substantially complete by the end of 2026, the new lights should be in place before the turf goes in. That puts lights, lot and field on track for the 2027 season.

The building between the rink and the fields is next in line

The recreation center between them has a plan of its own. In March, Mt. Lebanon Magazine reported that U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and local and state officials had announced nearly $1 million for accessibility upgrades at the center. Most of the money comes from the federal Community Projects Fund, plus $100,000 from the state's Local Share Account.

Municipal Manager Keith McGill told the magazine that the center "opened in 1977 as a state-of-the-art facility so advanced, it was where the Pittsburgh Penguins practiced." The building is now nearly 50 years old. The magazine's report notes that to get between the first and second floors, visitors have to leave the building and use an outdoor ramp.

The plan, according to the same report, is an addition on the front of the building. It would hold an elevator and a main staircase connecting the floors inside, plus new community rooms, workout rooms and department offices. A rendering by DRAW Collective also shows facade improvements. Commissioner Andrew Flynn told Mt. Lebanon Magazine that "the plans are just taking shape." Officials estimated a full renovation and expansion could cost about $10 million, and the final scope had not been set as of that March report.

Mt. Lebanon's parks and recreation dashboard lists the recreation center expansion as "In Progress." The ballfield schedule on the township's project page covers the fields, the lot and the lights, and it does not include work on the recreation center.

Changes like a new parking lot and field lights are the kind of local detail that comes up when people talk about a street, a park or a block they might live near. If you'd like to talk about how the changes along Cedar Boulevard fit into the rest of Mt. Lebanon, Jen Schalk is glad to share what she's seeing around the township. Let's Connect.