NEW BERLIN – The Village of New Berlin Board voted this month to modify a two-year-old land offer to Milford Academy after both were unable to come to an agreement.
The land debate has contributed to the possible relocation of a popular community event and the cancellation of a building project at the school.
The New Berlin Youth Days Committee said following its 50th Anniversary Celebration this summer, the Milford Academy grounds where the event has been held for the last half century will no longer be made available.
Milford bought the Main Street park area eight years ago and agreed at the time to rent the location to the Youth Days event for at least the following year, said Milford Director Bill Chaplick. Chaplick said the school now needs the area to develop additional practice fields for incoming students in 2012. He added the event’s “thousands of visitors and heavy tractor trailer sized equipment” caused significant damage to the grounds, making them unusable as practice fields.
“We love Youth Days, (committee coordinator) Larry Lloyd has always been great and for the last seven years we’ve been glad to volunteer the property for the event, but things are developing here at the school. We need to put the school’s needs and our students’ needs first,” said Chaplick.
The timing of the decision to no longer offer the privately-owned grounds drew concern from New Berlin Mayor Wade Schrag as the village and Milford continue to disagree on the details of a land usage agreement involving two playing fields behind the school. Schrag said the school was “adding pressure” to finalize an agreement.
The decision also had Youth Days Committee members asking village trustees about possible tensions with Milford Academy at the January board meeting, confirmed Lloyd.
“We’ve always had a very good and honest understanding with Mr. Chaplick and Milford. We thank them for all their years of support,” said Lloyd. “I think it will be very hard going forward at a new location. I’m worried this year’s might be the last Youth Days.”
“A long, long time ago they tried having (Youth Days) behind Milford at Fish Field; I think maybe they tried a few other spots, but in each case the event drew a lot less people. The Main Street location in front of Milford is really at the center of the village and I can’t imagine it getting the focus it’s gotten anywhere else,” he said.
The Village of New Berlin first approved the sale of Fish Field to Milford Academy in a resolution passed in February 2009 for $4,600 an acre, for roughly 10 acres of land. Two baseball fields are located on the property that are used by the Unadilla Valley Youth Baseball and Softball Association.
The specific accommodations for the Little League have caused obstacles in Milford’s plans to purchase the site from the village since the beginning.
Schrag said according to New York State Law, the village must create another park of equal size as part of the agreement. Two original replacement locations in the Town of New Berlin were later deemed unusable by engineers.
Schrag said a new donation being offered by Columbus yogurt manufacturer, Agro Farma, would allow the village to develop new fields and a facility behind Milford Academy, separate from the contended land.
Trustee Terry Potter, who is a Youth Days Committee member and past Milford liaison for the board, said the proposal by Agro Farma would effectively solve the long standing issue. Potter said he worked with Agro Farma through his personal business, Millennium Entertainment, and had arranged to present a donation by the company to the board this past summer. Since that first introduction, Potter has excused himself from all votes relating to the issue, he said.
“There really is no issue from where I’m sitting. I know we were trying to protect youth baseball, but I think that’s been accomplished. We’ve reached a mutually agreeable solution. I think we can move forward as a community with both Milford and the Little League being able to grow,” he said.
Lloyd also remained optimistic the new development with Agro Farma and the village’s new proposal may cause Milford to reconsider the planned development of the practice area used by Youth Days.
“As I understand it, the issue at the center of all this is no longer a problem. I hope that once everyone sits down and really thinks about what’s best for New Berlin some things may change for the better of all. We can all move forward as a community,” he said.
However, Milford reported it had not received information regarding the new proposal as of Tuesday and the past two years of negotiations have already caused strain and setbacks for the school, explained Chaplick.
Milford was founded in 1916 to help Ivy-League athletes about to attend Yale University in improving their academics and on-field playing skills. The school moved to New Berlin in 2002 and has been rated as the number 2 finishing school in the nation for talented high school student athletes seeking to enter college.
In 2009, the academy announced it intended to build a new high school-like football stadium for the Milford Falcons, capable of supporting over 2,000 spectators and hosting visiting teams. A section of the property Milford was to develop would affect the two Little League fields on the Fish Field property and plans were delayed and then abandoned as the dispute continued.
Though Chaplick said he still might enter into an eventual agreement with the village over Fish Field, he said the opportunity to build onto the Milford facility any time in the near future had passed.
“Those plans? There are no more plans.” said Chaplick Jan. 24.
Chaplick said he had not yet received the village’s new offer.
The New Berlin Village Board will hold its next regular meeting at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 8 in the village office on South Main St.