Community Corner
Dover Park Neighbors Come Out Swinging Against Boys' Little League
Say They Want Peace and Quiet and Little League Parents to Stop Double Parking on Their Street and to Behave More Courteously
These days, Fairfield's Little League teams are taking as many hits off the field as they're making on the field.
While $350,000 to build a girls' Little League field and infrastructure for a park on Hoyden's Lane grabs the headlines, residents who live by Dover Park recently filed a petition with the town's Parks and Recreation Commission objecting to how often Fairfield National Little League plays in the park and the behavior of some of the ballplayers' parents.
"As far as peace and quiet goes, I have none when they play eight hours a day on Saturday and Sunday and during the week from 6 o'clock to dusk," Robert Rescsanski, 69, of Toll House Lane, said Tuesday evening. "I just want my peace and quiet and I don't seem to get it."
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Emilia Gilbert, of Stevenson Road, said, "This is a little neighborhood park. It's getting out of hand. I don't want to stop the kids from playing, but I don't want seven days a week."
"Even God rested one day when he created the world. I would like one day when I can have company here and they can park their cars," Gilbert said.
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The complaints on the petition from Dover Park neighbors include parents of Fairfield National Little League players double-parking on their street, blocking their driveways and using their driveways as a turn-around; "screaming" at their children to "perform to their expectations;" holding up traffic by entertaining and walking on Stevenson Road; littering; children going onto their yards and antagonizing their pets; foul balls landing in their yards; dogs defecating in their yards; and use of the park seven days a week.
"There's not room to get a fire truck down here. This is not a road for double-parking," Gilbert said, adding that neighbors are afraid to drive down the street because kids throw open car doors and jump out.
Gilbert said parents of Little League players are rude when they're asked to quiet down and not use neighbors' driveways as a turnaround. "If they come in with no manners, it's up to Parks and Rec to teach them manners. I don't think that's unreasonable," Gilbert said. "We all pay taxes. We all have to follow the rules. I don't think I'm being unreasonable."
Gilbert added that everyone on Stevenson Road signed the petition given to the Parks and Recreation Commission July 21. "All my neighbors are disgusted, every single one of them on Stevenson Road," she said.
Dante Gallucci, president of Fairfield National Little League, said Wednesday that the neighbors had some good points and that he's told Little League parents not to block driveways when they park to watch games.
Gallucci said FFNL uses Dover Park for its Coach Pitch division, which he said was comprised of 7-year-olds and the second least impactful division run by the league because coaches lob balls to kids with wooden bats. But FFNL also has used Dover Park for games and All-Star practices involving 8-year-olds and metal bats, Gallucci said.
Dover Park, at 2.4 acres, isn't large enough to have 11- and 12-year-olds playing baseball because they'd whack balls into neighbors' yards and houses, Gallucci said.
Gallucci said Fairfield National Little League offered to put up a fence a few years ago to keep kids from wandering onto neighbors' yards after stray baseballs, but neighbors didn't want the fence because they thought it would be unsightly. Neighbors also didn't want a parking lot built by Dover Park, so Little League parents have to park on the street, according to town recreation officials.
Gallucci said he didn't have FFNL's schedule handy, but a review of the schedule on the league's Web site from April 9 through July 31 shows practices and games at Dover seven days a week, though not consistently. FFNL played 75 games, which would probably draw parents more than practices, from April 24 to June 19 in Dover Park, according to the schedule.
FFNL used Dover Park from 1 1/2 to 3 hours on weekdays beginning in the late afternoon for practices and games and from 2 hours to 10 hours on weekend days for practices and games. From April 9 to July 31, FFNL used Dover Park 74 of 114 days, according to the schedule.
Gallucci said he understood some of the neighbors' concerns, though he thought some, such as kids urinating in public, were exaggerated. He said he also didn't think it was appropriate for a neighbor to yell at a child when the child goes onto a yard to get a ball.
Gallucci said he and other FFNL officials would continue to tell parents not to interfere with the neighbors' enjoyment of their homes. But Gallucci added, "There are people who just don't want us down there and never did."
"We try to be good neighbors, but it's a town field. It's public property," Gallucci said.
Neighbors' complaints about Dover Park aren't new - Gilbert said she went to the Parks and Recreation Commission in the past and to the town's Police Commission as well. Rescsanski said Dover Park used to be a playground for decades until the town rebuilt McKinley School in a different location and lost two baseball diamonds. "I bought my house in 1966, and, until 2000, I never had a problem," he said. "I'm just looking for a little peace and quiet on Saturday, that's all I'm looking for."
Rescsanski said there's been a lot of peace and quiet in recent days and that he's finally able to enjoy supper outside.
But that's not due to any changes in where Fairfield National Little League plays ball. "Our season's over," Gallucci said.
FFNL's Fall Ball is next up, but Gallucci said Dover Park would be last on the list of fields that FFNL would use. "Dover is the first park we won't use. If we could somehow avoid a park, Dover would be the one we would avoid," he said.
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