One Small Step for Little League in Windham

By Michael Ryan

WINDHAM - It isn’t quite time to play itty-bitty ball, but the ball has started rolling toward the creation of new little league fields in Windham.

Town supervisor Thomas Hoyt, during a recent council meeting, announced that the Windham Foundation will soon begin the official process of subdividing 34-plus acres of land for use in the project.

The property was purchased by the Foundation, last year, on the outskirts of the hamlet of Hensonville, specifically for future community-shared recreational and civic opportunities.

A pair of little league fields are part of that vision, hopefully breaking ground this fall or next spring, giving mountaintop ballplayers a new home.

Between then and now, the Foundation will commence the required planning board process to set aside 7.2 acres for that purpose.

Nothing has been blueprinted in terms of the playing fields that will replace the current pint-sized stadium along South Street or the remaining lands.

In the meantime, registration has taken place for the upcoming baseball season with Opening Day ceremonies expected to unfold in May.

“There was a good turnout for the registration,” Hoyt said, noting the town will supply baseballs and provide maintenance, as usual, joined by the Knights of the Road with their customary financial support.

Little leaguers and t-ballers come to Windham from multiple towns on the mountaintop, continuing a generational tradition.

The Foundation, announcing the land purchase last year, stated, “the multi-use activity that will evolve at the site in the coming years, will likely spur continued growth in and around Hensonville, which has benefitted from significant recent entrepreneurial and residential investment.”

In other matters:

—Highway superintendent Gary Thorington, in his regular report to council members, said the LED bulb replacement job at the highway garage has been very successfully completed.

It took some extra doing, after additional bulbs had to be requisitioned, but the town will “still save a ton of money on electrical use,” Thorington said.

The roads chief brought a light-hearted moment to his report, explaining why more bulbs than initially planned had to be purchased.

“That’s on me. I made a mistake,” Thorington said. “I had already given the electrician an estimate on how many fixtures there were and how many bulbs we’d need but forgot to count a few.”

The town initially intended to do an overhaul of the existing fixtures, later determining it was overly labor-intensive and costly to do so, deciding instead to modify them.

“We switched gears, and I forgot the ones in an upstairs room which meant we needed another 96 bulbs,” Thorington said.

That ran the total to 350 bulbs throughout the shop, resulting in a heavenly impressive illumination. “It’s totally amazing,” Thorington said.

“Fluorescent bulbs are a thing of the past, You can’t buy them anymore. We had so many blown bulbs it was getting hard to see.

“Now, we can throw half the switches and there’s so much more light. It didn’t make me any brighter but the shop definitely is,” Thorington said.

A portion of the cost for the job will be picked up by NYSEG with the town absorbing the rest. “This will pay for itself in no time,” Thorington said.

Converting to LED on Main Street some years ago has also proven wise in terms of dollars saved in electrical efficiency and bulbs not burnt.

The local public library has likewise happily changed over. Any still useful fluorescent lights will be stored for replacements in municipal locations continuing to operate old-school, Hoyt said.

Thorington further reported the hiring of a new employee, with the department down two workers, bringing in Robert Murray.

—Council members scheduled a public hearing on a “local law for providing written notification of defects and obstructions on town highways, bridges, streets, sidewalks, crosswalks and culverts” within the town.

The update on existing regulations was recommended by the town’s insurer, related to potential civil actions brought against the town.

Government leaders will next meet on April 10, with the public hearing slated to get underway at 6:50 p.m.