Assemblyman Joe Borelli (R,C,I – South Shore) issued a letter this Friday to Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) President and CEO Kenneth Adams and New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) Commissioner Brian Fischer. This letter called upon the two agencies to enter into a maintenance agreement to allow public use of the baseball and other fields for the coming spring and summer seasons at the site of the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility.
“The youth sports community on Staten Island has been struggling for years to find adequate space,” said Assemblyman Borelli. “The remediation efforts at Great Kills Park and now the damage done by Sandy at Miller Field, among other sites, has dwindled an already diminished set of options for our borough’s young athletes.”
When DOCCS closed seven facilities in 2011, the ESDC was tasked with soliciting proposals for economic development projects on those sites. The Governor appropriated over $50 million to facilitate that goal, but the first Request for Proposals closed with no bids that were suitable or ready to go as written.
“We have an opportunity to address this issue now,” Borelli added. “If we take down the fences and the barbed wire and invest a little in the upkeep of the fields, then our youth leagues will have great practice fields at their disposal. This will take the burden off the few operational sites that we currently have.”
In his letter, Assemblyman Borelli stated, “I am writing to you today to propose a temporary maintenance agreement between NYS Department of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation and the Empire State Development Corporation, which would help alleviate a longstanding problem regarding the lack of athletic fields on Staten Island that has been only exacerbated by the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy.” Borelli continued, “We now know that private development will not commence in the immediate future, and the site will go unutilized and un-maintained in the spring and summer seasons.
“Notwithstanding the economic devlopment goals, this is an opportunity to bring some public benefit to an otherwise net-loss for Staten Island.”