Battle to Keep Ballpark

For Patti Tresch, the flat, grassy field marked off in perfectly shaped diamonds has been like a second home for her two youngsters.

Her eldest son, 11-year-old Shane, a major leaguer, swung his first bat on Jim Crosby Memorial Field 6 years ago. Six-year-old Bret Tresch now rounds the worn but venerable bases in the T-Ball league. The 4-acre parcel on Holder Street has been home to Buena Park Little Leaguers for nearly 30 years, a close and familiar neighborhood oasis.

But because of a proposal to sell the property, Tresch and other Little League parents fear that they may lose the complex they have built and maintained with their own resources, and they are gearing up for a fight to keep their oasis.

“I think the neighbors around here would like to keep the facilities,” Tresch said. “Most of the people who use the field live right around the area. We can send our kids there and know that it is a secure environment. I can’t see what they could bring in that would benefit the community more.”

The land on which the Little League complex sits belongs to the Centralia School District, which is considering selling the site as surplus property.

District officials say there is a pressing need to upgrade the eight active schools in the district, many nearly 30 years old. Sale of the Little League site, formerly the Mira Linda Elementary School, would provide needed funds for improvements, officials said.

“The money we would get for sale of the property can only be used for capital outlays, like new roofs, water heaters and classrooms,” school district spokeswoman Sally Pollack said. “With increasing enrollments and so many schools at capacity, we had to look around and see what is surplus to the district’s needs.”

The entire Mira Linda site is about 14 acres, 6 of which are leased by the Speech and Learning Development Center, a group that provides special education classes in the old school building. Another 4 acres are used, under an agreement with the city, for after-school recreational services. Pollack said the land has been valued at about $9 million.

Under an arrangement made more than 27 years ago, the Little League has been allowed to use 4 of the acres for $1 a year. In return, league families have provided all of the maintenance and upkeep of the facilities, which include two ball fields with brick dugouts, storage areas and two snack bars.

About 300 youngsters, from ages 6 to 13, participate in Little League activities each year.

Mike Bower, a Little League parent and spokesman for the Buena Park group, said that to duplicate the facilities on another site would cost upwards of $2 million, not even counting land prices.

“There is no other alternative for us,” Bower said. “We are not in a position to go out and spend $2 million to set us up from scratch. We are obviously vehemently opposed to any proposal that would displace us.”

Bower also questioned why officials would consider selling a school site when the number of people moving into the area is increasing. “In the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen a turnaround in declining enrollments,” Bower said. “Many young families are moving to places like Buena Park because they can’t afford to live in Mission Viejo. If we see another baby boom, where are we going to put the kids?”

But Pollack said there are two other schools within 2 blocks of the Mira Linda site that could accommodate more students if needed.

“If the (school) property were developed as a residential area and that meant more students moving into the district, we could handle that with no problem at all,” she said.

Pollack stressed that district officials have yet to determine what will be done with the Mira Linda property. The Centralia School District Board of Trustees will be presented with several options recommended by a special committee at its regular meeting Tuesday.

Those include:

- Selling the entire parcel.

- Continuing the lease agreement with the Speech and Development Center and selling the remaining 8 acres.

- Selling all the land, except for the 4 acres used by the Little League, which would be sold to the city for parkland and other recreational purposes. The Little League could then work out an arrangement with the city for use of the site.

- Offering the site for lease to the Little League and center at what school officials termed “fair-market value.”

- Continuing existing arrangements.

“We are aware and cognizant of the Little League’s concerns; after all, we live in the community and are parents ourselves,” said Pollack, who is a member of the district committee that developed the options.

Although the board is not scheduled to take action on the recommendations until February, the Little League group said that it has started a petition drive and is urging neighborhood residents to send cards to school board members.

Their moves are similar to those taken by Huntington Beach residents who protested the proposed sale of four elementary school sites, one of which was home to a Little League club.

An advisory committee to the Huntington Beach City School District subsequently voted against the sale, but residents remain concerned that their earlier victory could be overturned at Wednesday’s school board meeting.

The Buena Park Little League supporters said that they will fill the board chambers with kids at Tuesday’s Centralia School District board meeting so that trustees will not forget the human toll of whatever actions they take.

“I don’t think they should sell it because it’s so close for so many of the kids that play there,” Shane Tresch said. “I like the way the (Little League) board runs our field. It’s better than some of the other fields that are open in the area.”

Eleven-year-old Selena Fine, a sixth-grader who has played Little League ball for 5 years, added: “It’s one of the best fields in the city. It’s nice and green and no one ever slips when you play on it.

“We pitch in and do all the work ourselves. We’re pretty proud of it,” she declared.