Citizens for an Informed Yorktown

Town  Board

Special Meeting, April 25, 2012

In addition to Town Board members, the meeting included representatives of the Yorktown School Districtand private athletic clubs and members of the Recreation Commission.

As explained by Supervisor Grace, the purpose of this special meeting was to address a request from the Yorktown School District to use the multi-purpose field at the Legacy Fields from August  19th through approximately mid-November while a new turf carpet is being installed at the high school field. The district needs the fields Mon-Fri from 2-7pm and Sat from 8am-noon.  Because the clubs use the field at those times, he said that there would have to be some “sacrifice” on the part of the clubs to accommodate the district’s needs and he asked for everyone to work out the scheduling issues in a spirit of accommodation.

Once Supervisor Grace made it clear that the school district would have access to the field during the hours it needed and the club representatives had no problem with this, the issues then became:

·         How the clubs could change their practice and game hours

·         How the changes would affect  the different age groups that participate in club sports as younger groups could not play in the evening

·         What additional fields could be used by the clubs as substitutes for Legacy

·         Who would pay for portable lights on the substitute fields

After considerable discussion, the following decisions were arrived at:

1. The clubs would use Legacy from 7-10pm, after the district use, instead of their previous 4:30-7pm schedule which actually created problems because some coaches were not available in late afternoon. The clubs will work out the schedule for the new time among themselves.

2. The school district will make the “administration” field behind the old Farmhouse available for club use.

3. The Highway Department will do some “cleanup” at the Hunterbrook fields to make an additional soccer field available. Highway Superintendent DiBartolo said this could be ready by the weekend.  The consensus was that this was a better location than the still unfinished Granite Knolls field (see below), even though the Hunterbrook field has parking issues and there would likely be a complaint from at least one neighborhood resident to the additional use and lights.

4, The portable lights that will be needed at Hunterbrook and the district field beginning in September from about 5pm on will be supplied by the Town.  (Club representatives said that they could not afford the $10,000 that portable lights cost, especially as they had just raised their fees to in order to incorporate the new fee the Town will charge for the Legacy turf replacement fund. Mr. DiBartolo suggested that the Town ask Entergy for “emergency” portable lights that could be used for the fields when not being used for an emergency.  Supervisor Grace said he would explore possible donations for the lights or fund them  as part of the Town’s emergency management efforts.

In response to a question from Recreation Commission Paul Tetro whether the district would pay any fees for the use of Legacy, Supervisor Grace and Councilman Bianco said that that issue could be discussed later and Parks & Recreation Superintendent Brian Gray said that the district currently used the field without a fee.

Regarding the Granite Knolls field, Supervisor Grace said that the Town would either have to spend money to sod it or seed it and allow ample time for the seed to take. The tree stumps also have to be removed. And questions remained as to who would maintain the field. He said that the Parks Department did not have staff to take on additional mowing responsibilities and that there were issues, which he did not explain, involving the clubs doing the maintenance. One additional option, he said, is to accept the offer of a local landscapre contractor to maintain the field.)

During the discussion, it was announced that the school district will make two schools available for the
Town’s summer camp program, one for a full day program and one for a half day program.

Special note:  This observer learned the day after the meeting, that after the meeting broke up, and without any announcment that the Board would continue meeting to discuss other issues,  and after most people, including the  CIY observer, had  left the building, that the Town Board discussed the quotes that had been received for the replacement of tiles at the Shrub Oak pool.  According to the Deputy Town Clerk who was contacted the morning after the meeting, the Town will be getting additional quotes and the Board may vote on the issue on May 1st.