Every couple of years in Brookfield, there erupts a minor tiff over baseball fields. Could be the condition of the fields, could be who is using the fields.
At the root of the issues, however, is the question of “ownership.” No one, of course, is saying that the public parks don’t officially belong to the village of Brookfield. Rather, it’s the ownership that organizations (predominantly Brookfield National Little League) feel towards the baseball fields, because those groups have invested so much time, effort and money on maintaining and upgrading those fields over the last 50 years.
It’s a spirit of volunteerism that the village has been more than willing to accommodate. A private organization does most of the work and everybody compliments the village on their great fields.
Usually, the problems between the village and the leagues appear when the village starts asserting control over the fields. Most recently, this happened after a softball’s bad hop broke a girl’s nose. A village trustee closed the field and declared it unplayable until repaired.
The field was repaired within a couple of days, but there were a couple of nagging issues. First, the Little League revealed that it had already signed a $13,750 contract to have the field renovated and the work would already have been completed if not for bad weather this spring.
That announcement, made at a village board meeting, came as a complete surprise to village management. League officials also expressed astonishment that broken down fencing at one of the fields at Ehlert Park was replaced this year. They were grateful, but had no idea that was coming.
Secondarily, the league took issue with the condition of an equipment shed at the park, a structure they didn’t have the money to renovate. While they didn’t ask directly, the message was clear-how about a little help with that?
There’s no reason for issues such as these to get to this stage. What everybody needs to realize, both the village and the leagues, is that these fields belong to everyone and that the best way to address issues or potential problems is for league representatives and village officials to sit down regularly and plan for them.
Every year, leagues officials meet several times with the Playgrounds and Recreation Commission to divvy up field time. Perhaps that’s where problems, issues, planning and funding sources can be addressed as well.
Each side also needs to consider the other a partner in this effort, not an adversary, and that they actually need each other and can help each other do a better job of serving the residents of Brookfield.
Not that the transition will be easy. After a half-century of being told they were on their own, Little League officials may be justifiably skittish about ceding back some territory to the village.
So it is incumbent on the village officials-whether commission members, the village board’s liaison to the recreation commission or village staff-to make sure they keep those lines of communication open and actively court the leagues they depend on so much to make the village look so good.