Mike Russo/Herald
It's official ‹ play ball!
Valley Stream Little League to build field at Howell Road School
By Mike Schnitzel
The Valley Stream Little League and District 13 Board of Education signed an agreement on Tuesday night approving a contract for an official little league field in the district.
Howell Road School will be the site of a new baseball field that will host tournament games for the little league. The field will be constructed by the little league and can be used by the school when not in use for league games. The league will still play non-tournament games at fields throughout Valley Stream, including Firemen's Field, James A. Dever School and Wheeler Avenue School.
"It's not often a school is willing to step up like this to help out the community," said Valley Stream Little League President John Faust at Tuesday night's meeting. "This sets a precedent that this partnership is about the community as a whole."
League officials are planning for the field to be ready for the 2008 season. According to Chris Viggiano, little league treasurer and past president, the cost of the field, sod, baseball diamond and backstop will be roughly $160,000. Viggiano said that right now the league has about half of the necessary funds for the project.
"Our main goal now is fundraising," Viggiano said. "We believe that the cost and our goal is reasonable, and we will be reaching out to the community and businesses to help us meet that goal."
The league plans to sell donor bricks for a walkway which will sit behind the plate. The name or family name of a donor will be put on each brick, which will sell for $100. "It's a way of memorializing people who donated to help us build the field," Faust said.
The current plan has been a long time coming, according to league officials. Prior to the beginning of negotiations with District 13 a year ago, the league had reached out to the state, Town of Hempstead and Village of Valley Stream to find a suitable space for a regulation, tournament-sized diamond during an eight-year span of negotiations.
"There's not a lot of open space left in Valley Stream for a field, let alone one that would be dedicated to a single sport," Viggiano said. "It was very hard to meet everybody's needs, but [Howell Road] was an ideal situation."
Board President Jeanne Jacobs and Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Lison lauded the contract signing as the beginning of a beautification of Howell Road School that will benefit both the district and the little league.
"It's a total win-win situation for the children of Valley Stream," Lison said.
Faust said that he plans to allow the Valley Stream Mail League to use the field when the little league is not using it for its baseball games. "When the Mail League tournament comes around, we will invite them to use it if we're not using it," Faust said.
Officials hope that home field advantage will be a comforting feeling for Valley Stream Little League teams come tournament time. "It will be nice to be able to finally play a tournament game on a Valley Stream field," Viggiano said.
Anyone interested in more information about the new field or donating funds can visit the Valley Stream Little League Web site at www.vsll.org.
Comments about this story? Mschnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
