By Cindy J. Roth
"If they were going to make it a complex we wouldn't have moved here," said Donna Alvarez, whose side of her home faces the baseball field.
The Alvarez family have been the main opponents to the field citing poor crowd control, untimely starting and ending game times, lack of suitable off-street parking and the field's lights that glare into their homes as a nuisance. "It takes away from why we bought the house," said Alvarez.
Paul Alvarez, Donna's husband, has been attending East Rockaway Village Board meetings religiously since April demanding the board address his concerns. The six-year village resident has written several letters to the mayor and compiled a petition signed by 20 residents requesting the board take some action to stop what they describe as their declining quality of life, owing to the field's usage.
"People need to have some consideration for their neighbors," said Paul, who claims he has been awoken by the sound of the national anthem, player line-ups and play commentators echoing from a public address system at 9 and 10 a.m. on several weekends.
The complex, which is located at the intersections of John and Willamson streets and Seventh Avenue, used to just be an ungated park. Four years ago, a group of local residents teamed together to overhaul the land, creating an enclosed baseball diamond with a backstop, fencing and bleachers. Since use of the field began last spring a concession stand was erected, stadium like lights were installed and a public address system has been brought in for special games.
The complex represents a renewed commitment to recreation and athletics in East Rockaway. Throughout the year the complex's field is used for flag football, basketball, baseball and tiny-tot kickball. Village officials said they are going to continue to expand the complex's abilities as a recreation hub, while trying to address the concerns of those residents who are disgruntled with the field.
"It's only the second year down there so there are still a lot of growing pains," said East Rockaway Village Board Trustee Edward Sieban. "The resident's concerns are valid, [but] meeting everyone's expectations are not an attainable goal."
Frank Pignataro, the village's Department of Recreation director, whom most of the Alvarez's complaints are funneled to, is at a loss for how to remedy the situation.
"There is nothing more we can say," said Pignataro. "We've been very patient listening to his gripes. We tell teams to only enter and leave through the John Street entrance and use the municipal parking lot. The board has been more than lenient with this guy and it just grows from there."
The most recent village board meeting on Aug. 12 became heated when several residents interrupted Paul as he addressed the board with his standard list of complaints. One man jumped out of his seat yelling, "You're a liar. I can't listen to this," before storming out of the room. Others hissed as Paul spoke.
"I go to meetings and believe if you have a voice you need to voice it," said Paul. "The more we voice our concerns the more we worry about other families retaliating. They bring 30 families for intimidation. I'm nervous these fanatics are going to hurt me."
East Rockaway Deputy Mayor Joseph Carrigan said the situation is paying a toll on the board members. Residents unhappy with living by the field have to realize every little issue cannot be solved with one stroke of a brush.
"We feel like a ball in a Ping-Pong game," Carrigan said. "It gets very frustrating some times."
The board's promises to address the issues are not a comfort for Alvarez and other residents whose homes are across from the field. They said the board has ignored simple obvious ways to address their concerns like aiming the field's lights downward instead of out so they do not shine into their windows and starting the games later in the mornings and ending them earlier in the evening.
"There is a lot of stuff inconveniencing me," said Paul. "What they ended up doing is lighting all the houses, not just the field. They closed the Seventh Avenue gate because residents over there were complaining about the parking problem and now the parking problem is moved to my block. They didn't think everything through. They just went around and did it."
Other residents who live near the John Street field believe those homeowners complaining need to understand the importance of having the complex.
"We should embrace the community not tear it down," said a homeowner whose backyard abuts the complex's basketball courts but did not want to be identified further. "I rather see kids playing ball on the field than drinking beer in some park. When you hear the ping of the ball and kids cheering, there is nothing better than that. Maybe if their kids joined the leagues they wouldn't be so adverse to it."
Pignataro said he would be willing to meet with Paul again to discuss his problems, but only if he knows the agenda beforehand. He said the recreation department already shortened the summer baseball season and a few people's problems are hurting the almost 400 children who play in the department's baseball league.
"We denied the children of East Rockaway the opportunity to play summer ball," said Pignataro. The season ended in June and only a few playoff games utilized the field since then. "I feel like we hurt the kids."
Pignataro and other baseball representatives said the East Rockaway leagues are essential to keeping kids off the streets and giving them productive activities to participate in. Theresa Sgro, another resident whose property faces the baseball field and claims it is a disruption to her family's quality of life, said she understands the need to keep kids off the streets, but it shouldn't be at the expense of being in her backyard.
"I just want to have one quiet night where I can sit on my porch without being bombarded [with noise]," said Sgro.
Sieban, who has children playing in the village recreation department leagues and who has publicly praised the recreation department for its expanded services this year, said residents on Williamson Avenue simply need to be more understanding of the entire village's needs. There is only so much that can be corrected, which will not just move the problems the Williamson Avenue residents are having to some other block.
"We can extend the courtesy to tell people to park elsewhere and keep the noise level down, but people do what they do," he said.
