TRR photo by Tom Kane Will O'Brien of the Braves swings and misses.

Little league in dispute with school over use of town field

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG - The Dodgers and the Braves, two Little League teams, are having trouble getting in the practices they need on the town field, commonly known as "the Flats," according to their coaches Kevin Miller and Steve Daley.

"The problem is with the Narrowsburg school," Miller said. "The field is a town field. We are town teams and should have precedence in the use of the field."

A couple of Narrowsburg school team coaches don't seem to know that, he said.

That, however, is not the way the Narrowsburg School Athletic Director Scott Haberli views the matter.

On a number of occasions, Miller said his team arrived at the field for a practice and found the field occupied by school athletes.

"We can share the field if we had some idea when they were coming," Miller said. He said all efforts to get the school coaches to communicate were wasted.

Miller was especially concerned about his opening game on May 15. "The school has scheduled a game here beginning at 4:30 p.m. Our game is at 6:00 p.m. School games usually take two hours or more. The team they're playing is Tri-Valley who can't get here any earlier. What are we supposed to do? This is a town field. We are taxpayers. The school has its own fields," he said.

Haberli said "I called Miller two or three weeks ago work out a solution, left a message on his machine with my work and home numbers but he never called me back."

He said that the town's teener league uses the school's field. "We take care of the field on the flats," he said. "We cut the grass, keep the bases, the pitching rubber and the backstop in good condition. "

Haberli said historically the school had the town's permission to use the field since 1975. "We should be able to work out any problems," he said.

Haberli admitted that the school teams did inconvenience the little leaguers' practice on two occasions. "We caused a problem with a few of their practices but not with any game," Haberli said.

Miller said that when the new high school is built the problem will disappear. "Meantime, we have to live together," he added.

The Little League season goes from May 15 to mid- July.