By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo by Dallin Grant | USU

As the partnership between Utah State University Eastern and Helper City continues to blossom, major improvements are set to come for the city’s historic Heritage and Gardner Fields thanks to grant funding from the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation and a cash match from the Houston Family.

“It’s all in by all parties, our citizens, the city, and the university. ” We were just glad to be able to secure a wonderful, generous donation from John and Jerry Houston, which allowed us to go after this funding and double it essentially,” shared Helper City Mayor Lenise Peterman. “We’ll use the funding for expanded dugouts, for turfing fields, building restrooms up at the women’s field and building a press box. So just critical things that need to happen for collegiate play.”

Other upgrades include wind screens, batting cages and ADA-accessible gravel areas.

The funding comes from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, administered by the UDOR. The fund delivered $580,000 to Helper to be used for improving the facility.

Additionally, Helper City received a cash match for the grant from the Houston family, effectively boosting the renovation funds to $1,160,000.

In a press release from USUE, Athletic Director Jess Brinkerhoff celebrated the efforts made by the city to improve the fields, “For our baseball program, this investment allows us to keep building in a place with deep history … These upgrades benefit not just our student-athletes, but everyone in the community who uses these fields.”

Since partnering in the lead-up to the 2025 season, USU Eastern Baseball and Softball have felt the love from the community, which has shown up in spades to support the teams. 

“It’s fun to go up and see the games,” said Peterman. “It’s fun to see our citizens and join them. It’s just a good time to go out and enjoy it.”

Brinkerhoff echoed this sentiment,” Community partnerships are everything for a place like USU Eastern. We don’t exist in isolation, we’re part of Helper, Price and the communities of Carbon and Emery counties.”

“Our role is simple,” added the AD, “we want to be good stewards. We want to continue investing time, effort and resources into maintaining and improving the fields while respecting the history of everyone who has played there before us – and those who will play there in the future.”