Brookfield will partner with the local chapter of Little League to improve baseball field number four at Ehlert Park.
Village trustees on Aug. 25 agreed to let Little League recommend a contractor to skin the infield of the diamond, leveling the mounds and removing the grass to replace it with dirt. The chapter will also seek bids to fully fence the field in, as the fence now does not run the full perimeter.
Brookfield Little League also approached the village to ask about adding a new set of bases at a distance of 70 feet in addition to the existing based set at 60 feet. This would allow kids up to 13-year-old to use the field alongside the younger cohort who already can. The village board did not reach a consensus and will discuss the topic again in the future.
Little League will cover the costs associated with the improvements, though Brookfield may sign the contracts for the work and need to be reimbursed for payments. The cost to renovate the field ranges in the bids Little League sought from $14,800 to $38,500.
Kevin Jaworski, the vice president of field maintenance at Ehlert Park for the local Little League chapter, said the work would enable more groups to play at the field.
“Currently, that field is just reserved for boys’ baseball because of the grass, so skinning that infield and leveling the mound would allow for Challenger, girls’ softball and boys’ baseball all to use that field,” he said.
The Challenger division, affectionately called the Buzz Squad, allows kids with physical or mental disabilities to play together and engage in the sport of baseball.
Christine Ramirez, the Challenger coordinator for Little League, said participation has grown rapidly — from just eight or nine players two seasons ago to 16 last year and 32 this year — requiring more space than is available in field number five, which is the only fully fenced baseball diamond in town.
In the past, she said, the division has had to have kids play two separate games at the same time, one on the infield and another on the outfield, to accommodate the size of the group. The changes to field four would allow both groups to play on their own diamond.
“As you know, in the outfield, there was grass and dandelions. Not quite ideal. I had to have bases,” Ramirez said at the meeting. “Obviously, we made it work, and the parents and the kids were thrilled, but to be able to actually let them play on a real field and feel like they’re playing an actual game is the ideal situation.”
Jaworski said the grass at field four would need to be improved in the near future anyway, so simply skinning the field instead, alongside fencing it in and adding the new bases, would “kill four birds with one stone.”
While the board has not made a decision on whether to allow the new bases, several members seemed opposed to adding them. Village President Michael Garvey said he worried allowing older kids on the field could cause an influx of baseballs being hit into the nearby skate park, parking lot or bocci pavilion.
“We really try and make the use of every square inch of park that we have, and by allowing kids that age to play in this, I think it would severely limit the possible uses in the outfield area,” he said.
Trustee Kit Ketchmark agreed, saying he felt the expansion could create issues.
Trustee Nicole Gilhooley said she would like to expand the age range of the field but agreed with the concerns about stray baseballs. She said she would need more time to make a decision either way.
The other four trustees did not express a strong opinion about adding the new bases.
Jaworski said the new bases could be added easily at any point down the line if the board did not support them now. He said he hoped the main work of skinning the field could be completed this fall.
“It allows the field, all of that new lime, to settle over the winter. Versus, doing it in the spring, all of that new material being put down and then played on right away is not ideal,” he said.
