District Still Hopes to Have Baseball Field Completed by Next Week

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High baseball team coach and athletic director are working with the district on game scheduling in the event that the field is not complete by the start of the season, Business Administrator Anthony Del Sordi said Thursday.

Del Sordi said it's still the district's goal to have the project complete by the end of next week, but in the event it doesn't happen: "We have been working with the coach and athletic director on the scheduling with that and it's certainly up to them to determine which games will be switched if it's not open by then."

At the beginning of Monday's special Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Margaret Hayes updated the board with a timeline of the project from start to present. The report was requested by Board President Trip Whitehouse after last week's meeting, when parents, players and the high school athletic director voiced their frustration with the fact that the district began construction on the field in late January, just a few weeks before the team started practicing for its spring season.

Hayes stated that she met with baseball coach Tom Baylock, athletic director Rob Harmer, principal David Heisey, business administrator Anthony Del Sordi, and buildings and grounds director Anthony Miranda after that meeting and concluded that while communication can always be improved, all parties did in fact speak during the process.

Hayes noted that while the first games may have to be played away, the baseball team will play those teams again later in the season.

"At that point they will get to have the home field advantage," she said.

The team's season starts April 1 with a game against Plainfield.

According to Hayes, the project was broken into three phases: 1) removing sand and other substances on the grounds; 2) working on the field's draining and piping; and 3) installing stone, clay and other substances needed to get it back into playing condition.

Hayes said the district began looking at the scope of the project last summer, and between then and January work included meeting with the architect to discuss the assessment and getting quotes for the work from Sanguilianos. In January, Sanguilianos was awarded the bid and began work later that month.

At last week's meeting, Del Sordi stated that at first they ran into problems determining the exact problems of the field, which took a little longer to resolve than they would've liked. He also noted that the district had to go through a state process before beginning, and that ended in mid-January. Del Sordi said the district believed it had sufficient time to complete the work.

The project was delayed during the two snow storms in February and the heavy rain storm in mid-March, but Hayes stated that nevertheless phrase two began in early March.

"What's important now is to get the field completed," she said.

The baseball team is currently finishing up its scrimmages, which are being played at Park Middle School.