Forum held over fate of Marengo Ballfields

By Randa Wagner

Almost 100 res­i­dents assem­bled Octo­ber 23 at Marengo United Methodist Church to par­tic­i­pate in a forum that invited them to offer on input on the future of the ball­fields in Marengo.

The Marengo Youth Base­ball and Soft­ball Asso­ci­a­tion has been seek­ing reas­sur­ance from the High­land School Board the youth base­ball teams will be able to use the fields behind the for­mer High­land West Ele­men­tary School for at least the next 3 — 5 years. The board issued a state­ment on the mat­ter, say­ing, It is the intent of the HLSD BOE to turn the man­age­ment of resources over to a col­lec­tive group of cit­i­zens for the ben­e­fit of all stu­dents. It is not our intent to take away, but instead add to the options for our stu­dents and communities.

The school board feels by merg­ing the three groups, a new board would be formed to sched­ule and man­age the Chester­ville, Sparta, and Marengo play­ing fields for High­land kids.

Our only desire is to help facil­i­tate the use of the green space and allow the play­ing fields to be main­tained by the mem­bers of the newly formed ‘orga­ni­za­tion, the state­ment continues.

In a state­ment issued by the Marengo Youth Soft­ball and Base­ball Asso­ci­a­tion, the MYBSA says they have approached the cur­rent school board sev­eral times to ensure that MYBSA could con­tinue oper­at­ing on the cur­rent fields in Marengo. The out­come has always been that as long as we con­tinue to do what we are doing and the school owns the fields.

The state­ment goes on to say the board shared their vision of merg­ing the High­land Park board, MYBSA board and HYO board into one authority.

This author­ity would own, oper­ate and main­tain the High­land com­mu­nity park as well as the satel­lite loca­tions in Marengo and Chester­ville. There would be pub­lic elec­tions to elect the offi­cers that would make up the board. This new board would oper­ate the new orga­ni­za­tion. The vision would be for all to come together and all high­land kids play for this organization.

MYSBA is con­cerned if the Marengo ball­fields are sold at a future date. They would have thirty days to vacate and they say the boards’ thoughts are the park would house the kids until another res­o­lu­tion could be made for more play­ing fields. The fear is that the park needs to fill their fields for the upcom­ing sea­son and, if they do and the green spaces are sold, then where will the kids play? If HYO and Marengo choose not to do this, then the park will be filled with travel ball and adult soft­ball teams and who knows when we would get it back.

Dur­ing the two-hour forum, a num­ber of cit­i­zens and board mem­bers spoke, seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion of what the merger would mean. Some felt the MYSBA was being forced to merge or pos­si­bly lose their play­ing fields, should the land change hands in the future. Jack Fish­burn gave an emo­tional tes­ti­mony to the value of the ball­fields and promised Marengo they would have their ball­fields, even the cur­rent land were sold.

Altizer encour­age all con­cerned to attend the next High­land School Board meet­ing Tues­day, Novem­ber 13 at 7 p.m. at the high school.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Oct 31 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.