The Fight For Light Has Begun

Agenda item 9 on the "New Business" section of Town Council agenda drew two speakers to the audience of citizens and the topic will likely be a testy one as the calendar moves forward.

The agenda item read: Refer installing field lights for the Berlin Little League Petit I Field to the Planning and Zoning Commission for 8-24 review - Parks and Recreation. 

The Berlin Little League would like to install lights to one of the two fields at the Petit Complex off Sbona Road near the Percival Heights Senior Center.

Housing Authority President Joe Bajorski addressed the council first.

"There are 33 tenants in Percival Heights and they will be affected by the noise and traffic pollution and the buffer between the lights and the housing is not adequate," Bajorski told the council. "I don't think there is proper traffic for night games nor proper egress. There are homes nearby as well. It looks like this has been fast-tracked and I think there should be a delay and put on hold until more people realize this issue has re-surfaced."

Bajorski and another speaker, Matt Odishoo, who lives on Percival Avenue, said that they think that when the fields were built, part of allowing the fields to be built was based on the fact there would never be lights there.

"I am a big fan of the Berlin Little League," Odishoo said. "I went through the program, not very well, but this is not the first time this has come up. If it keeps coming up, we need to deal with it once and for all. There is not enough of a buffer between the field and the houses in the area." 

Longtime Berlin Little League President Bill Petit, who the complex is named for, said the Little League is not trying to sneak anything by anyone.

"It has never been said or written that we wouldn't put lights in at the field," Petit said. "When the original plan was going through the town, Bob Peters, who was Mayor at the time, wrote a letter to calm everybody down saying that lights were not in he present plan. The letter didn't say there were never going to be lights, just that they weren't going in with the original fields."

The Berlin Little League started the application to put in lights in 2004 but pulled the project when the purchase of the lights became too expensive.

"Everything is in place right now for the project to go forward. We have an engineer who will tell everyone that there is very little affect on the property around the field. Those trees out here are over 50 feet high. People have said we will be hosting teams from out of town and non-taxpayers. That's not true. If you are hosting a tournament, a Berlin team is playing. It goes, districts, states, regionals and World Series. We could only host regionals and states and only if we are playing."

Another problem brought up said the night games would go on late at night but Petit said during school no inning can start after 9:30 p.m. and when the players are out of school no inning can start after 10 p.m. 

Bajorski said there are many problems with the plan.

"It looks to me like they are trying to sneak it through," he said. "We have concerns. The Little League never approached us with the plan to talk to us. Because it is going to Planning and Zoning, we have not yet had the chance to do any research on the original plan. We will do that for the P & Z meeting and I will also ask the Planning & Zoning Chairman to hold a public hearing. 

"I think there was a part of the original proposal that said the Little League would not put up lights. I will do the research to find out. The lights will affect those seniors at Percival Heights as well as the houses in the neighborhood. It is a neighborhood setting. We just would have liked to know this was happening and we hope the council and P & Z listen to the people of town."

Mayor Adam Salina told both Bajorski and Odishoo that this was just the first step in a long process. 

The council voted unanimously (6-0) to send the proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which next meets June 9.