Little League pushes for Leonard Park field upgrades

One of the Little League fields at Leonard Park in Mount Kisco. With frequent puddling after rainfalls, the fields have been plagued by divots and uneven surfaces. MARTIN WILBUR PHOTO 

By MARTIN WILBUR

The leadership of the Mount Kisco Little League recently pressed the village board for answers over delays in scheduled improvements to the baseball fields at Leonard Park.

Bob Byrns, president of the Mount Kisco Little League, and Jeff Harwitz, another member of the Little League board, questioned officials at the board’s April 21 meeting about why they failed to act on a resolution approving the upgrades earlier last month and what the plans are for the future.

At the board’s first meeting in April, Mayor J. Michael Cindrich made a motion to award a contract of $598,975 to Paladino Concrete Creations Corp. of Mount Vernon for the work on the fields and to extend a walking path within the park. However, without explanation, Cindrich didn’t receive a second from any of the four board members.

Byrns told the board that ponding of water following rainfall has caused divots in the surface, often making the field difficult to play on, and there is a pronounced lip on the edge of the outfield grass.

“The issue is still the puddling of water in the fields anytime it rains, and we’re talking major puddles,” Byrns said. “We’re talking from third base to shortstop to second base, you can just see, and we keep bringing this to the attention of the DPW and it needs clay to fill in the divots.”

Harwitz said he is distressed by the deterioration of the fields.

“We’ve got to do something. It has to improve somehow,” Harwitz said. “Like Field 1 slopes back toward the fencing. There’s got to be a way to level it.”

Deputy Mayor Theresa Flora said the initial bids for the work were too expensive for her to support the April 7 motion for the contract, which was about $160,000 lower than the original proposal. But the price was still high considering the outfield was not going to be addressed, she said. 

Flora also mentioned that she asked the village engineer about the likelihood of future floods damaging the fields.

“If there’s a flood or two floods, is it possible that all this new work will wash away, and the answer was there’s a strong potential for that,” Flora said. “So, we also know that the streambed needs remediation, it needs to be dredged, we have to clean up some debris downstream. I feel like we were working backwards, like we should have done that first.”

Trustee Tom Luzio said last month he did not have enough information at the time to vote on the proposal. However, now that he has received the information he was seeking, he would support the proposal.

“I would like to have it all, but I would also like to see something get done,” he said.

Funding for the reduced proposal would come from state grants totaling $350,000 from state Sen. Peter Harckham and Assemblymember Chris Burdick. The remaining $248,975 would come from village coffers, said Village Manager Edward Brancati. 

In addressing Byrns’ concerns, Brancati explained that Mount Kisco spends about $30,000 a year on clay, which is in the budget. However, the issue is that over time there has been so much clay built up on the fields that some areas are a few inches higher than other spots, causing the lip.

The village uses a leveler in an effort to maintain the field.

With costs escalating, Cindrich said he did not want to send out for additional bids because the expense would be certain to rise, which could then force the village to reduce the scope of work.

“I don’t want to cut too much out of it because if we cut stuff out of it there may be no incentive for the contractor that was awarded the bid, or the contractor to even do any work in Mount Kisco,” Cindrich said.

Under the last proposal, the village was planning to extend the walking path that runs from the Route 172 side of the park and ends at Little League Way so that it connects with another path that enters the area of the tennis courts, Brancati said.

A discussion was to be scheduled between the recreation commission, the Leonard Park Committee and Little League and village representatives to devise a way to move forward. The issue will then be discussed at an upcoming village board meeting.

This year’s Little League season was scheduled to begin last weekend.