Garden City trustees Nov. 8 granted a one-year lease extension with the Town of Hempstead to enable the Garden City South Little League continued use of the Garden City-owned Cherry Valley ball fields despite pleas from Garden City baseball program officials who said their growing Little League and travel programs are in dire need of those fields in order to accommodate the village's young players.

Resident John Donachie said there is nothing more close to his heart than this issue and the opportunity for young men in town to play the game of baseball. "Our [Garden City baseball program] has grown by leaps and bounds over the years," he said.

Whether it's the Little League or travel program, Donachie added there's in excess of 1,000 boys in the program in the spring and upwards of 150-200 boys in the year-round travel program.

"We've just come through a fall season that basically left most of us who were fielding teams scrambling to try and play games out of town. Most of us couldn't play a game in town because there were no ball fields at our disposal," Donachie told trustees. "Adding those fields to our roster of baseball fields would resolve a number of problems...

"The baseball programs in other villages that have access to those fields will have access to other fields being built in that geography. These are fields we should return to our fold and have at our disposal so we can have our kids in a 10- or 12-game season be able to play some home games," he continued.

Members of the Garden City South Little League Board of Directors, in a letter sent to Mayor Peter Bee, noted, however, that the Town of Hempstead is not building any new fields for its Little League program.

The letter stated: "The construction referred to by the GCAA is the reconditioning of Washington Street School's existing baseball fields by School District 17. There are currently two poorly maintained fields at Washington Street. We do secure permits for these fields each year. In fact, the current SD17 plan is to replace the two fields with one field - a net loss of one field!"

Unbeknownst to some, Garden City has been leasing the fields to the Town of Hempstead for the past 50 years and the president of Garden City South Little League wants it to continue for more than a one-year extension. In a letter to Village Administrator Robert Schoelle, the 15-year Garden City South resident thanked the village administration for allowing the league to use the ball fields for 52 of the league's 54-year existence.

"A decision to take away these fields would be devastating to the whole community. The league cannot make up these games somewhere else. It's not possible ... We don't have 16 fields to choose from. We don't have the money or land to build other fields as you do ... A long-term deal would establish the league to be around for years to come and allow the board to concentrate on running a program without looking over its shoulder year to year. It handcuffs the league, holds back registration and creates negative feelings between the people of Garden City, Garden City South and the GCAA," he stated in his letter.

This most recent lease extension is for the 2008 season, beginning Jan. 1 and ending Aug. 31.

Kilburn Road's John Sorensen, a baseball player all his life who manages and coordinates and works clinics for the travel program, is sure the number of players 50 years ago doesn't compare to what's there now. "Fifty years ago I'm not sure how many kids played baseball in Garden City but as John [Donachie] mentioned the numbers have actually grown, in the travel program alone we have 190 kids," he said.

For the past two or three years, Sorensen said, all kids trying out for the travel program get accepted; in the fall alone the GCAA added four new teams and 50 kids to the program.

"In Garden City we have Community Park with dugouts and the Stewart fields with dugouts. That's it in terms of true baseball fields in Garden City," Sorensen continued. "The fields at Cherry Valley as you know have lights and they have dugouts. They are not the best maintained honestly but could be if they were in the hands of Garden City ... The main issue here is that the numbers now are much greater than they were 50 years ago, 10 years ago, even 5 years ago."

He added, "I imagine if these fields were fit for football, soccer or lacrosse you wouldn't be leasing them. The fact that they are located outside of town so to speak is kind of like an after thought and I venture to say that most people in Garden City don't even realize Garden City owns those fields ... I'd just like to see the kids have better fields to play on than they do right now."

Garden City South Little League Board of Directors members are convinced that the majority of Garden City residents, especially those who are involved in Little League, are against the proposition of not renewing the lease and ultimately taking Cherry Valley away from this League. "The 'good neighbor' policy of Garden City has benefited children of our community for over 50 years; from Rudolph Giuliani to players we hope may one day follow his example," their letter continued.

Mayor Bee, who told Donachie and Sorensen he didn't want them to feel like their comments went unheard since the board had already approved the one-year extension, noted that the motion on the agenda had been adjourned twice to continue discussions with the Recreation Department and Garden City South Little League. "A message has been sent out to the Town of Hempstead and the Garden City South Little League that the Garden City sports community is growing," he said.

Trustee Robert Rothschild concurred, adding that this issue was very important to him individually because he believed it needed to be aired. "It's been a very long process. This went back two or three years," he said, crediting Recreation Director Kevin Ocker and Mayor Bee for getting all parties in one room and advising where things were going for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

"There have been discussions about expanding the Community Park area. These things have all been discussed. It was beneficial to hear from other parties. The Town of Hempstead acknowledges the understanding going forward," Trustee Rothschild continued, adding that, at the urging of the mayor, trustees were not going to kick the Garden City South Little League off those fields unless they were assured the Town of Hempstead, Garden City South and Franklin Square were going to accommodate their residents at other fields.

"They acknowledged that and they are going to do that so we felt it was only fair to give them additional time to work out the use of the additional facilities," he said.