With the promise of $30 million for park improvements from SEA Fund III money, Oyster Bay-East Norwich parents and children involved in sports attended the Tuesday, March 4 hearing with a suggestion on how to use some of those funds. The Oyster Bay SEA (Save Environmental Assets) Fund is the third such bond act passed by township residents with increasing support: from 70 percent, to 71 percent to 72 percent at this last vote. This time, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto and the town board had doubled the amount asked for and got $60 million. Half of those funds will be used for acquisition of environmentally sensitive lands and $30 million for improvements to parks and recreational facilities. Mr. Venditto said after seeing the support from the community in the voting numbers, the town board decided to "double their pleasure and double the amount asked for."

At the meeting Supervisor John Venditto greeted the audience and in his talk showed that he understood the needs of the OB-EN sports community. Supervisor Venditto said the town has created turf fields, state-of-the-art playing surface for all weather sports in Syosset, Massapequa, Bethpage and that "the next stop is right here in this area. We will re-furbish Theodore Roosevelt Park and are creating new fields for our children." He was greeted with applause.

Supervisor Venditto said he wasn't too pleased with the condition of TR Park and said he is committed to changing that. He said if it were the public's will, the town would refurbish TR Park and Ralph Marino Park.

Deputy Town Supervisor Len Genova explained the process saying that the SEA Fund Advisory committee recommends sites for improvements to the town; a list is compiled and the process begins as they contact the people involved.

Joe Heaney of Walden Associates and current president of the Oyster Bay/East Norwich Soccer Club, represented the Oyster Bay-East Norwich youth sports community including the OB-EN Soccer Club; the Oyster Bay Rough Riders Football Team; the OB Rough Riders Lacrosse team and the OB Little League. He said for the past seven months they have been meeting with the town to try to solve the problems of not having sufficient playing fields in the area.

The problem crystallized, Mr. Heaney said, when the OB-EN School District closed the fields at the Vernon School because of their construction project. It had been primarily used by the OB-EN Soccer Club. They were pushed to use TR Park and two fields in Syosset. Mr. Heaney said he fielded complaints from parents about having to go out of town in transporting their children back and forth to games.

OB-EN Soccer Club past president and current board member Sal Albanese explained in a telephone interview, "We used to use all the fields in back of Vernon School for practice and for games on a daily basis, but once they started breaking ground for the parking lot, it was considered a construction site and we couldn't use any of the fields. Thanks to the Town of Oyster Bay, we were offered two fields in Syosset which we have been using for the last year. We have been questioned repeatedly by the parents, 'Why do we have to play our home games in Syosset, our home is in Oyster Bay.'"

"We have over 700 children, including 21 travel teams in our program. Our current President Joe Heaney and future President Sharon Tiberia have spent tremendous amounts of time with the town and school district trying to solve the field issues. For our spring season, the school district gave us one field at Vernon School for one practice. This accommodates approximately three out of 21 travel teams. The town gave us TR Park, however, due to one of the lights falling and the others taken down for safety, those fields are not available to us. This leaves us going back to fields S-14 and S-17 in Syosset, putting a tremendous strain on parents to bring their children there after work. With many parents working and unable to meet the early time slot, this leaves the children without being able to practice with their team. We are hoping that the town will be able to restore the lights as soon as possible as our first Waldbaum Cup game is on March 16." [The town has to follow its bid process, which takes time.]

Mr. Albanese explained the complexity of the problems. He said, "I just went to schedule the 21 travel teams for its twice-a-week practice sessions, and it is a nightmare. We have a contract with a paid training organization and our contract calls for two training sessions back to back. We cannot comply with this clause due to lack of fields and lights. An interim solution is to double up and on some days, triple up on teams practicing on one field. What this means is that instead of having 15 to 18 players, we will have 30 - 36 players; and in some cases 45 to 54 players on one field. This is not fair to the children of OB-EN Soccer as they are facing teams from Massapequa, Syosset and Hicksville, etc., and these teams have turf lighted fields and in some cases, two or three such fields.

"We have been seeking solutions all over the area," Mr. Albanese said, "Thanks to the private schools - East Woods and Portledge - we have been able to use their fields for games. The younger U-10 and U-11 age groups use East Woods and the older ages use Portledge School field for games. We are not allowed to practice there because the school uses them. During the winter, we have been using indoor space at East Woods and the Roosevelt Elementary School. As you can see, soccer is a year-round sport and in order to be competitive with other towns, so we too must be."

Mr. Albanese said, "It's a giant operation and takes a tremendous number of volunteer hours to run a successful soccer program. There are many times you run from work to practice to a board or committee meeting before you go home to eat!"

Mr. Albanese said the search for playing space extended to the St. Dominic Fields. "They gave us space, starting in April from 6 until dark. Those fields will be very useful to us in April. The problem is we need the fields now during daylight or we need to be able to install portable lights, which the club has done in the past on the Berry Hill Fields (Ralph Marino Park)."

He also stated that the existing field at TR Park will be a softball/soccer field and the other proposed new field will be a soccer/football field. In addition, there is a very small section which the players will be able to use for stretching and warmup.

Continuing to explain the situation, he said, "The OBEN Soccer Club is able to use the Ralph Marino Park on Berry Hill Road in the fall but not in the spring; and the two fields in Syosset, but not Stillwell Field where there are numerous fields available, but used exclusively by the Syosset Soccer Club. We tried to get space at Stillwell Fields. If granted, they would be a solution to our problem, since portable lights can be used. However, the Syosset Club has a lock on those fields. Stillwell is closer than the fields the town gave us: S-14 is behind the Willets School, by the Long Island Expressway, near the Syosset Library and another field, closer to Stillwell but small - and both are in the middle of residential neighborhoods. Between these fields we are trying to accommodate all these kids. The 21 travel teams practice twice a week and games are held on Saturday and Sundays and our Intramural program which runs from pre-K through fourth grade."

At town hall, Mr. Heaney said they decided that he would "Speak as one voice for all of those here." He said there are 5,000 families in the hamlet; the OBEN Soccer Club has 700 children; and 21 travel teams, up from five, five years ago. One is considered "premier," one level below professional. The Rough Rider Lacrosse program has 250 players; the baseball program has 450 children; the football program has 250 players. There is limited access to the OBEN School District fields - they are available after 6 p.m. and it gets dark at approximately 7:10 p.m., he explained.

The town has helped by giving them lights and access to the TR Park fields and Ralph Marino Park but he said, "One of the light towers at the field at TR Park was blown over recently in a storm and the other lights were taken down and are now lying across the field, so the children couldn't use that field."

Mr. Heaney said they envision using Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park as a sports complex for local children. Using artificial turf they can create two softball diamonds on the existing field, that can also be used for football and lacrosse and can use the outfield grass for practice. They use brown turf to mark the softball areas, in the midst of the green field.

Ralph Marino Park on Berry Hill Road can be used in the fall for baseball on the weekends. During the spring it is all baseball. He said Oyster Bay does not have a single regulation soccer, football or lacrosse field and there is no 90 foot regulation baseball field. The plan is to turf the entire softball field similar to that done by the town at Walker's Park, a turf facility. They use brown turf to mark off the baseball areas while the entire surface can be used for soccer and football.

They envision two full-sized fields: one, the existing baseball field which can be used for soccer; and one, a football/soccer field to be built at TR Park by taking a small portion of the parking area. They suggest that the Capone property be converted into a gravel parking lot for 60 additional spots.

The current baseball field can be used also by the adult softball league teams that play during the spring and summer.

Mr. Heaney said the advantage of using TR Park is that it is a compact area and already has lights. The turf surface is an all-weather playing area. TR Park has bathrooms already, but they would like to be able to add a concession stand. He added that at Marino Park they also would like space for a concession stand, (since that raises funds for the teams,) and a bathroom.

Mr. Heaney said currently the OBEN Soccer Club can't host a tournament because they don't have enough field space. He said Dix Hills Soccer used Walker's Field in Hicksville and when it snowed overnight the teams still were on the field playing at 8:30 a.m.

At Ralph Marino Field there are two baseball fields and in the fall, the area is used for soccer. The town has provided lights for them so that they can play between 4:30 and 9 p.m. He said in the fall, a large number of children are dropped off and there is insufficient parking: the only lot adjacent to the Marino field is shared by the Boys & Girls Club. Besides turfing the Marino field, with the brown areas for baseball play, they need dugouts and warmup areas. Additionally, the school district has no space to store extracurricular materials; therefore they also need storage space at the field.

Mr. Heaney added that research has shown that the town owns three lots on Hill Drive and Berry Hill Road that are used for construction fill. He said it could provide off-street parking for Marino Park.

Mr. Heaney said, as a civil engineer he was aware of drainage problems at the Marino field and said the soil character is poor. He said, in playing games, "We destroy the grass in the field, and turf holds up better."

Mr. Heaney said, he played lacrosse in college and was disappointed that it was not available in the OBEN schools, but he added the Rough Rider Lacrosse team has 250 players and that the club began just two years ago. He said now the OB-EN school district will be fielding teams at the seventh- and eighth-grade level. The audience applauded.

Mr. Heaney said the benefit of having turf fields as he described them, would increase the use of the fields since each can be used for several sports.

He added, "Cooperation between the groups is great!"

He said this was a great opportunity for the community since more kids could play; it was a bridge for community cooperation; the town could run a summer program there; and it would help with downtown revitalization; it would better utilize the existing fields; and added that Ralph Marino Park would look great if it was state-of-the-art. Turf, he said, doesn't need to be cut, doesn't need water or fertilizer and therefore needs less maintenance and it doesn't attract geese. He called it a low-cost investment.

He said the fields for kids would help add shine to the "Jewel by the Bay!"

As for the Oyster Festival, he said they would be taking away space from their food court but he added that the sports clubs themselves use the festival for their primary fundraiser and they believe that the Oyster Festival would be able to manage with the change, as they have done so before.

Mr. Heaney said they have support from community groups including the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce; the school district; the OB Historical Society; the CYO; the Masons, the K of C, the Lions and the TRA and both Oyster Bay fire companies.

Deputy Supervisor Len Genova said there was a great deal to look into and said they will contact Mr. Heaney for another meeting to discuss the sites.