NEW BERLIN – The Village is searching for a new area to designate as a public park to replace recreational area lost after the municipality sold a parcel of land to Milford Academy.
According to New York State Law, the village must create another park equal in size – but the initial replacement location has now been deemed unusable and the board is searching for another area.
“The initial proposal from the (Town of New Berlin) to put fields along the left hand side of the roadway down to Millbrook came to a halt when the town’s highway superintendent stated that they can not level the area due to a strong shale base in that area,” said New Berlin Mayor Wade Schrag.
Schrag said the Town of New Berlin offered another site at Millbrook, near the communications tower, but he didn’t think the area offered enough room to accommodate the two little league baseball fields the village is keen on re-establishing.
Schrag said the current alternative locations may require a high degree of landscaping and the village was hoping to find a more suitable area.
The Town of New Berlin passed a resolution May 11, 2009 approving the development of several new sporting fields at the town park by the village.
The move created an alternate location for the Unadilla Valley Youth Baseball and Softball Association to hold future games. Previously the league played at Fish Field in the village and shared the site with Milford Academy, which bought the property.
The village sold the property of Fish Field to Milford Academy in a final resolution May 12 for $4,600 an acre for roughly 10 acres of land where the two little league fields were located.
The specific accommodations for the league originally caused some obstacles in the preparatory school’s plans to purchase the site from the village. Milford is hoping build a high school football stadium on the site.
“However, this does not prevent the sale in any way. It does however mean that the agreements between Milford Academy and the UV Youth Baseball and Softball League have to definitely be in place at the time of the closing,” said Schrag. The mayor said those agreements may included the league using the Fish Field site until the village could build the new ones.
Although the deal was approved by the board and the New York State Legislature before being signed by the governor it has yet to be completed.
Schrag said the village and Milford were eyeing a May 15 deadline for the closing but were unable to complete the process. It was not clear what the specific delay was.
Schrag said the village’s attorney, David Merzig, was in contacted with Milford’s lawyers in an attempt to finalized the agreement in a face to face closing at the mayor’s request.
“I also asked in regard to the agreements that had been made authorizing the UV Youth Baseball and Softball League to continue using the former High School baseball field and Rotary Park baseball field, until such time that their replacement fields have been completed. And, that Milford Academy would not allow equipment or fences, etc, to encroach on the playable areas of either of these fields,” said Schrag.
Schrag said the concern of securing the little league’s new fields led the board to include the request in its agreement with Milford so their sport season could continue uninterrupted until the village constructed the new sports fields.
“This was part of the original agreement that was made when the village board voted to approve the sale of Fish Field,” he said.
Schrag said currently the village was looking at constructing each field separately and apart from each other at Millbrook but that plan would require NYSEG’s involvement since one of the possible sites currently had power lines running through it.
Schrag said he hoped to soon set a date for the agreement’s final closing and would discuss the topic, including the placement of the fields, at the board’s next meeting June 8.