By Joe Kellard
Among their options is a possible multi-leveled project the OUSC, Molloy and East Rockaway school district may enter together with Nassau County to build fields in Bay Park.
The project would consist of a collegiate-sized baseball field and softball field for Molloy, a soccer field for the college and OUSC, and a track encircling this field for the school district in the southern part of the county park in the Village of East Rockaway.
"The county is interested in improving its property and facilities at the park to everyone's benefit," said County Legislator Jeff Toback, who has had talks with the three parties involved.
Although in its earliest stages, the prospective project as it is presently structured would see the county put up the land and Molloy or possibly the village paying for the construction of the fields and track. "We may very well be funding a preliminary study to get a real cost estimate so that that the other players and the county knows what the reasonable expectation of the cost is," said Toback, who added that the village hired a consultant to work with the county's parks department to map out a grand scheme.
With a membership of 1,300 youth soccer players, the OUSC mainly uses Oceanside school district's fields to run its games. But even after the OUSC was able to get the Town of Hempstead to construct a new field at Oceanside Park , which opened earlier this year, the soccer club is still in need of more fields.
"The problem is," said OUSC President Brian Trager, "so many people have been vying for the limited field space in Oceanside, predominately by the school, and as our program grows, we need to look at other resources."
At Molloy, where most of the college's 25-plus acres are all but in use, enrollment is "bursting at the seams," and the college must find more space to build athletic fields, said Ed Thompson, vice president for advancement at the college.
"In general, we need space," Thompson said. "But while there have been some broad discussions about how we might all work together, this is all very preliminary and is just one of a variety of options where we are looking into."
East Rockaway schools opted not to include a proposed natural-sod track in an $18.7 million bond for upgrades and renovations that its board passed last March, and so the district may enter this county project as its only other option to create another track for its students to use.
"We would embrace the entire concept because it would be good for all the kids in our community," said Superintendent Dr. Arnold Dodge. "But specifically we would like to see a state-of-the-art track for our track experiences for our kids."
Meanwhile, the OUSC faces problems with scarcity of space even with its available fields. Next fall the Oceanside Middle School will close off its fields for renovation, as part of a bond project the district passed in 2003.
This effectively pushes the OUSC to look for alternative fields to play their games. "This coming fall our in intramural program is in jeopardy because of these renovations," Trager explained. "We run the risk of losing a major part of our program for that time period."
Like Molloy, OUSC is seeking other options in addition to the county project. Trager said there are few options, but one is the town. "We're going to begin to open up all avenues to see what we can do," he concluded.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
