North Stonington Little League: News Articles & Press Releases
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Five new fields being built
Published on 4/17/2006
North Stonington When North Stonington Little League officials and volunteers learned the town needed to re-seed the recreational softball field this year, they feared that some Little Leaguers would face a spring without baseball.
Luckily, we convinced them to work around us, Tom Suedmeier, the league's director, said.
The field, behind the firehouse on Route 2, is one of the few facilities available to the league's 17 teams. Another one is at The Grange.
Suedmeier said he appreciates that the fields are available to them, but that they're too small for the league's 230 total participants almost half the eligible boys and girls in the town's schools.
The fields also fail to meet Little League standards.
Coaches carry around throw-down bases and scout out open space wherever they can. And kids who play senior league baseball (ages 13 to 16) and softball there are about 50 of them have to go to Pawcatuck to play because the town has no facilities for them.
Now, the league has firmed up plans for its field of dreams, on about 14 acres on Swantown Hill Road, about one mile from Route 2. The land, donated by Susan and Peter C. Grufstedt, includes about 30 more acres of undeveloped land.
Plans for the Starlite Little League Complex include construction of five fenced-in ball fields for the senior league, the major league (ages 9 to 12), the minor league (ages 7 to 11), the softball league (ages 7-16), and a T-ball field. Each field will have bleachers and two dugouts, each about seven feet high. The home dugout will have a second floor with a public-address booth.
Speakers will be mounted on light poles, and a scoreboard will be placed in left field. There will be a communal fenced-in batting cage and crushed stone pathways to connect the fields.
A concession stand will have a stove and grill for hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza slices, as well as public bathrooms and a meeting room for members. There will be a storage shed, a small playground and a pavilion, which may become a Boy Scout Eagle project. A crushed stone parking lot will accommodate 122 cars.
The state Department of Transportation reviewed the site plan for traffic issues, and Resident State Trooper William Bowyer wrote in a letter that the use would not severely impact traffic flow onto Route 2 from Swantown Hill Road. Lights are designed to illuminate only the fields to minimize the impact on residential areas, and games would end by 10:30 p.m.
Suedmeier expects the project to cost the league about $1.5 million, but nearly a third of the work and materials associated with that figure has been offered in donations, such as excavation and a septic system.
League officials are still seeking supporters, Suedmeier said. Through the team's Web site, donors can have their names engraved on a wall of fame or on a walkway. They also can buy advertising for ball field fences. The Planning Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the project on May 4.
We're hoping they see the definite need for this in the community, Suedmeier said. This is for children, and we're nonprofit, not a business. The town would benefit from this without having to pay.
The earliest the league could use the fields would be next spring, he said.