Statement from Sonoma Little League on loss of its Paul’s Field home
From sonomalittleleague.com:
Most of you have probably heard the news about Paul’s Field being shut down to make room for a housing development in conjunction with the Sonoma Splash community pool project. In April of this year, the developers behind Sonoma Splash assured Sonoma Little League that Paul’s Field would be retained as an important part of the “community equation”. Sonoma Splash board member Arden Kremer told the Sonoma Index-Tribune “we see the baseball field as an integral part of the community center.”
Paul Favaro, Sonoma Splash Board President, indicated from the beginning, that the ball field would remain on site, reassuring the Valley that “the field was complementary to the pool and furthers the group’s desire to create a sustainable recreational facility for the community.”
While we recognize and respect the right of a landowner to do what they want with their asset, the Sonoma Splash developers only recently bought this property. They were well aware that there is, and has been, a chartered Little League operating a field there for nearly 60 years, and the social obligation that goes with that. As a league, we have always been good stewards of the Marcucci property and we thought the new owners would continue that tradition.
On the Sonoma Splash website, their vision is “to create a community space that inspires residents from across the valley to come together. Sonoma Splash envisions a day when Sonoma Valley boasts a multi-use, recreation facility that is accessible to all residents of the Valley for fun, fitness, education and recreation.” It remains unclear how replacing Paul’s Field with a housing development is compatible with their vision.
Our League continues to grow and thrive. More than 400 kids will play baseball this year. As our rosters have grown, we have not been able to add new fields. Losing a field would be a critical blow to the present and future of our great league.
The County has suggested improving the facilities at Maxwell or possibly even adding another field at Maxwell. Ask yourself – do you trust the County to build, operate and maintain our baseball fields? If you need help answering that question, I encourage you to inspect the current field conditions at Maxwell, Ernie Smith and Larson Park.
Sonoma Little League vowed to work with the developers from the very beginning to build a mutually beneficial community asset. But that does not include destroying a Valley landmark like Paul’s Field.
One thought on “Statement from Sonoma Little League on loss of its Paul’s Field home”
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Thank you Sonoma Little League for posting this well written letter representing facts and statistics around how many people are affected by Pauls Field in such a positive way. It’s not only The Sonoma Community, but neighboring communities who share this field from time to time playing games with our kids as well. 400 children is a huge figure.
I sincerely hope and pray that “Big Business” doesn’t drown out our community and take away such a integral part of our kids upbringing. The Little League creed.(maybe you can post that too) eloquently states how baseball helps young ones grow up.
Our kids need more to do here, not less.
It is a fact that kids who play a sport actually perform better in school.
Taking Pauls field away would impact this community I more ways than we can imagine, really!