Play ball!

After being shut down by a court in October 2005, Ron Houben
Memorial Park in Eldred has re-opened its baseball field with the
first game at the field set for tonight, weather permitting.

Eldred resident Phil LaBella, who is a park commissioner and has
been involved with the park for many years, told The Era the field
is now “open for business” following the completion of a project
that put up netting along the field.

McKean County President Judge John Cleland issued an order in
September 2005 that baseball could not be played at the park until
a fence was erected to prevent baseballs from going into the
property of Corey S. and Kristie A. Chase, who filed a lawsuit
against Eldred Borough on July 8, 2004.

The Chases introduced to the court a large number of baseballs
that had landed on their property, including their swimming pool.
The balls, they said, destroyed their power lawn mower and broke
the windshield of a car parked in their lawn.

After the borough appealed Cleland’s decision, Commonwealth
Court agreed with Cleland on July 3, ruling 3-0 that the borough
should raise a fence to protect the Chases and their two young
children.

On July 25, Eldred Borough Council agreed with a plan to make
improvements to the field based on calculations made by Eldred
resident Pete Palumbo, who has been involved with the park for five
or six years. Palumbo’s plan included placing three telephone poles
50 feet high with netting set at 60 feet laterally along the first
base line in addition to the existing 13-foot fence. Palumbo said
Cleland approved the plan in September.

LaBella said Wednesday the borough was told if the netting was
put up to satisfy the law then they “should be fine” – as long as
the netting is in place, the field is able to be used.

The first two of three poles went up April 3, installed by Wally
Sander of Penelec and his two helpers. The third pole was installed
slightly later. LaBella said two boom trucks donated by Davey Tree
and Lawn Care and Puretech were used to put up the 60 foot high
netting on Sunday. Larry Mitchell for Davey Trees and Dan Drummond
of Puretech donated three hours each of their time to help put up
the netting, LaBella added.

LaBella said the reason for the gap between when the poles and
the netting were put up was due to the weather. He said the
Otto-Eldred High School agreed to supply the netting for the poles,
which were purchased from Puretech who had the poles delivered from
Georgia.

Palumbo and LaBella were hoping to get the poles and netting set
by Oct. 15 or 20 before the ground froze, but the poles didn’t
arrive until November.

When they arrived, “I called Wally Sander, who said ‘my guys are
really tied up with Christmas shopping and hunting,'” LaBella said.
“He asked if we could put it off until after the first of the year.
The weather December and much of January was pretty good, but when
they were available to get at it, the weather was bad. Since it was
all voluntary help, I couldn’t really push it more than it
was.”

LaBella said the cost for the entire project, which used only
volunteers, was about $6,200, but they received $3,030 in
donations.

“It wasn’t too bad,” LaBella said of the donations. “It didn’t
cover our costs. I guess it’d be half. We got donations from 35
different individuals or businesses. The donations range from $15
to $300.”

Since there wasn’t enough money raised, LaBella said the plan
for refurbishing the backstop at the field was put off.

LaBella said the park lost about $1,000 while the baseball field
was closed down for more than a year between the high school,
Senior League and Legion not using the concession stand.

In the past, the field has hosted the Babe Ruth, Senior Little
League, Legion and Otto-Eldred High School baseball teams. LaBella
said both the Babe Ruth and high school teams plan to use the field
now that it’s re-opened. He said there still isn’t a Legion team,
but the park is open for anyone else who may want to use the field
for picnics. He said the high school baseball team will play their
first game at the field tonight, weather permitting.

“Eldred Borough and Eldred Baseball are happy that it’s over
with,” LaBella said. “We just want to carry it on from here and
enjoy baseball.”