League Fine Rescinded At Parks Commissioners Meeting

By John Voket

A $1,000 fine levied following a reported conflict between a local Babe Ruth Little League team and an adult men’s softball team was rescinded Tuesday afternoon when Parks and Recreation Commissioners discovered the double-booking of a playing field was the result of a misprint on a computer spreadsheet. The mistake, an incorrectly placed game date, resulted in men’s softball players converging on a local playing field soon after a Babe Ruth league game commenced there.

While heated words were allegedly exchanged between Little League coaches and softball team representatives at the onset, the situation eventually resolved itself when cooler heads prevailed and with both teams managing to get their games in without further incident.

Commission Vice Chairman Edward Marks said Parks and Recreation officials initially imposed the hefty fine against the Babe Ruth league because it was the men’s softball team who was officially authorized to be at the Treadwell Park field location on the day and time in question. But Babe Ruth officials made a sufficient case and produced a computer spreadsheet that was circulated at the beginning of the season containing a complicated grid of days and times accommodating the many teams and hundreds of youths who were participating in the baseball league.

“We are satisfied that there was an error on the schedule which caused the [Babe Ruth] teams to be at Treadwell on a Thursday instead of a Friday,” Mr Marks explained to fellow commissioners. “So I’ll make a motion to waive the $1,000 fine since it was a legitimate scheduling misprint that [caused the conflict].”

The motion carried unanimously, but later in the meeting commissioners reasserted their pledge to levy heavy fines to teams and individuals who compromise playing fields and other Parks and Recreation facilities, or who cause conflicts during scheduled activities. The group committed to reviewing, and if necessary, increasing fines as the group moves forward into the fall sports and recreation season.

Chairman Lawrence Haskel said he would seek to not only levy fines against guilty parties, but would seek to recover the cost to repair damage caused.

“I propose progressive fines including compensation for any damage done to fields or facilities in a revised field agreement,” Mr Haskel said.

Among other items discussed at the meeting July 12 was the commission’s commitment to become more involved as plans for remediation and demolition activities proceeded at Fairfield Hills. Mr Marks said during a recent ad hoc Fairfield Hills Management committee meeting he learned the project management firm on the job, O&G Industries, was already making contingencies for sports fields that are planned for part of the recently acquired campus.

Parks and Rec Director Barbara Kasbarian told commissioners that a representative from the Torrington-based construction company said he hoped to see finished playing fields ready for action by next summer if all goes as planned.

This comment brought a flurry of comments from commissioners.

“Maybe we need to be settled on what we need. We need to make some decisions and get back to O&G,” Mr Marks said.

Mr Haskel agreed that the commission needed to become an integral part of the decisionmaking process if the Parks and Recreation Department was expected to utilize and possibly be charged with maintaining the proposed fields.

“We need to be involved right from the start,” Mr Haskel said. “At this point we are an informal participant in the process. We need to be proactive on this.”

After making a commitment to work more closely with other committees and the project manager on the field proposals at Fairfield Hills, the subject turned to formulating rules for new and returning sports leagues. Mr Marks suggested that an increase in local facilities being used by teams comprised of fewer than half Newtown residents warranted possibly revising rules and standards for facility access.

“I am suggesting using a two-tiered eligibility requirement for field and gym use,” Mr Marks said. The vice chair said he would give priority to teams fielding teams with at least 70 percent Newtown residents, and a lower priority level being assigned to teams fielding fewer than half the team made up of locals.

“Existing groups that don’t meet those criteria may have to apply for a waiver from year to year to access town facilities,” Mr Marks said.

During her report, Ms Kasbarian said all preliminary work had been completed on the Treadwell Park field, and that contractors being hired to install an artificial playing surface there were expected to begin work in the coming week. She said the contract between the town and the vendor was about to be signed, and that work would commence immediately following.

That project is only about seven to ten days behind schedule, and should still be completed in time for fall teams to play on the surface.

Ms Kasbarian said she expected engineer consultants to be on hand at Dickenson Park Friday to continue evaluations that may lead to an eventual replacement or significant renovation to the popular natural water pool. She reported that the pond was closed to swimmers last weekend because the combination of extremely hot weather and a slow leak that dropped the water level by more than three feet contributed to the discovery of e-coli bacteria in the water.

“The bacteria was developed during weekly water tests performed by the Newtown Health District,” Ms Kasbarian told commissioners.

She said parks maintenance staff discovered and repaired a slow leak in a drainpipe, and after shocking the water with chemical treatments, the water was extremely clean and safe for bathers. Speaking about the proposed improvements at the pool, Ms Kasbarian said she spoke to a resident of Wilton who said a similar facility in that town was improved by simply tearing out the deteriorating concrete basin and leaving a dirt bottom.

“We’re planning to go down and take a look at that pool in the next few weeks,” she said.

The director also told commissioners that First Selectman Herb Rosenthal promised to apply for grant funds to underwrite repairs and improvements to a new central Parks and Rec maintenance facility adjacent to the Reed School.

One of the final items of business discussed was the ongoing needs assessment survey. It has been more than six months since residents attended two public information-gathering sessions at Reed School to begin the needs assessment process. Since those sessions, parks commissioners and management have also met to study the public input provided during those meetings, but since then little more has been done in the process.

Commissioner Carlen Gaines said she was eager to see the assessment process moving forward and scoffed at the suggestion that any further action be delayed until September or October.

“We need to address some situations,” Ms Gains said. “I propose we schedule a meeting as soon as possible to address the overall organization. We have some major things that need addressing.”

Following the meeting, Ms Gaines said she hated to see the process get bogged down in the paperwork stage, but empathized with the overtaxed and understaffed Parks and Rec office.

“This is a perfect example of why we need to look at these issues sooner than later,” she said. “We keep adding fields, we keep adding kids to the programs but we have kept staffing levels the same.”

Ms Gaines, who is an IT specialist with the Newtown Board of Education, said the Parks Department needs to look at new technologies that would more than pay for themselves by reducing a lot of the hands-on duties of parks staff who are sometimes overwhelmed handling program registrations and scheduling.

“We should have online registration, we should be making it easier for the customer to interact with our department,” Ms Gaines said.

She also said the department and commission needed to better allocate its energies inviting the participation from a much broader demographic of facility and program participants.

“We’ve recently taken over the trails, and that’s a start. But our commissioners should be looking at more programs, policies, and procedures and not spending so much time involved in the minutia of local sports leagues,” Ms Gaines said.