It's not the school and the BOE thats holding up the Little League Field
---It's the State Monitor and the Lawyer ---something to do with Title 9 is one
of the issues holding it up. There were other reasons but the lawyer would
not let any of the BOE members speak on this issue.
----- Original Message ----
From: dfsavgny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 11:24:51 AM
Subject: [AsburyPark] Let's Sue the School Board - Frank - Give us the state
monitor's phone # & email
November 29, 2007
Officials want Little League field moved
By NANCY SHIELDS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
In less than two years, the Asbury Park Little League raised $225,000
to rebuild the worn-out, flooded playing field the league shares with
the girls softball team at the city high school.
The league spent $100,000 to upgrade the field last spring, and now,
President Danny McKee and his board of directors are in the second
phase to put in dugouts, night lights and a small field house with an
announcer's booth.
But once the league began making the larger improvements, the school
district began raising objections.
Two weeks ago, school officials stopped the new lights, being paid for
by Interfaith Neighbors, from being delivered. Officials said a soil
test was needed.
On Tuesday, district officials stopped McKee from having engineers
conduct the soil tests they had required. The company was not on the
state's Department of Labor registry or pre-qualified by the state
Department of Treasury.
In recent weeks, McKee said, he has been given a growing list of
requirements that no one mentioned before. He said he sent Board of
Education attorney Alan Schnirman the complete scope of the project in
October 2006. Schnirman declined to comment Wednesday.
Also on Tuesday, the crisis reached a new dimension when school
officials suggested to McKee that the Little League field be moved to
the school's intermediate school grounds off Bangs and Prospect avenues.
Following a closed session of the school board Wednesday night, McKee
was told that is what district officials plan to do.
The idea to move the field is that of the board's new state fiscal
monitor, Mark Cowell. John Moore, a former school board member, told
the board that it must take a stand and say, "We're going to have a
Little League field" at the high school.
"Let the state monitor overrule you," said Moore, the city's deputy
public works director.
The league has already spent $100,000 donated for its field at the
high school, said the group's treasurer, Brendan Pack.
"And now, to say to move it to the middle school, I can only believe
someone doesn't want this done."
"If we're not doing it the right way, fine, give us the right way in
one fell swoop," Pack said. "Tell us everything that has to be done."
McKee said, "If this doesn't get done, I want to be paid for my time
and want the school to reimburse everyone that gave money. It's
basically fraud. . . . They basically lied to me and I passed that on
to all of Monmouth County and throughout the country."
Acting Schools Superintendent James Parham said Wednesday there are
still several outstanding issues, but said moving the field was being
looked at.
"What we're looking to do if it's feasible is to relocate that field
over to the Asbury Park Intermediate School," Parham said. "We would
feel it would be more valuable to the community . . . and to the
intermediate school."
For years, the Little League field was on a different part of the high
school athletic field and was included to be improved in a 1997
referendum question approved by voters.
But that earlier board ran out of money and the Little League was
moved, sharing the deteriorated girls softball field.
McKee and his board worked the past several years to rebuild the
league, and launched their campaign to upgrade the field in 2006.
"Danny has spent part of the last two years of his life working on
this," said school board member Frank D'Alessandro. "In any other
town, any sane town, they would be working to help him, to have a
partnership with the Little League, not only for our children but as a
feeder system for the baseball team at the high school."
"Why are we making this man jump through 17 hoops to get anything
done," he added. "I think they didn't expect him to get this far. . .
. Now they're saying why not just move everything over to the
intermediate school. . . . That will cost taxpayers $100,000, to put
in all kinds of sprinkler systems, do the soil tests, if they want all
that done."
One of the issues that still bothers McKee is that he was supposed to
meet with the school board's building and grounds committee in July,
but that meeting was canceled. In August, he was told he had 15
minutes. He said he gave his presentation and left thinking everything
was "good to go."
Garrett Giberson, chairman of that committee, said Wednesday afternoon
that he could not comment.
Parham said another issue is to make certain that the high school's
girls athletics have equal access to the field.
"In some of the correspondence we received from Mr. McKee, it's almost
like he's stating that's his territory and that is not true," Parham
said. "It's board of education property."
McKee said the field is the Little League field, period.
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