While baseball may be a game of inches, maintaining a baseball field in East Williston is apparently a game of feet.
Village of East Williston trustees on Tuesday considered parking restrictions on Sagamore Avenue that would provide Town of North Hempstead vehicles access to the Sagamore Field to cut the grass.
At the public hearing, the village board agreed to restrict parking to only official vehicles between 8 a.m. and noon Tuesday through Thursday during the baseball season to provide access to town trucks carrying law mowers.
“There are not activities in the park during those hours. I don’t think it would cause a problem with parking there,” said village Trustee Robert Vella Jr.
But village officials couldn’t agree immediately on the amount of space the vehicles would require.
Board members originally proposed restricting traffic on a 45-foot stretch of Sagamore Avenue running beside the field.
But Diane O’Donnell, a traffic technician for the town, said the vehicles, including two pick-up trucks, would require more space.
“The location is correct. The only thing I have a problem with is the length,” O’Donnell said.
She suggested the town would need 103 feet starting at a point 180 feet north of the intersection of Sagamore Avenue and Roselle Street.
Village of East Williston Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said the board planned to revise the restrictions based on O’Donnell’s suggestion.
“There is a consensus on the board to grant the town’s request,” Parente said.
One resident complained about parking along Sagamore on weekends when Little League games are played during the season.
Vella said the parking problem resulted from a parking lot adjacent to the ball field that had been locked. He said he had contacted the Village of Mineola, which owns the parking lot, and was given permission to remove the existing lock and put a new lock on the lot.
He said coaches will be given access to the parking lot next season.
In other developments:
• Tanner said the village Planning Board will continue a public hearing on an application to subdivide property at 8 Sumter Ave. on July 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall. The home located on the property is being sold by the owner, John Muzio, on the condition the property is subdivided, village officials have said.
The house, roofless with broken windows, has been a recurrent course of complaints from neighbors. After gaining permission in a Nassau Supreme Court ruling, the village was in the process of deciding whether to demolish or restore the structure at the owner’s expense when the proposed sale of the property was reported.
• Trustee Caroline DeBenedittis said 70 East Williston households had registered to participate in the first villagewide tag sale on Saturday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. She said maps would be available at Village Hall to guide shoppers to the houses participating in the first-time event. She said the rain date for the tag sale is Sunday.
• Trustee Christopher Siciliano said the village Department of Public Works is currently pruning trees in the village and has also planted a few. He said residents who want trees planted in front of their houses this fall should contact Village Hall.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
