Tolland withdraws from Miracle Field negotiations
Jun. 1—TOLLAND — After more than a year of discussions and an engineering study, the town has withdrawn from negotiations with the Miracle League to build a baseball field for disabled children in town.
NEGOTIATIONS FAIL
WHAT: After more than a year of discussion and an engineering study, Tolland has ended negotiations with the Miracle League of Northern Connecticut to build a baseball field for disabled children.
WHY: The town did not want to absorb the cost of replacing and maintaining the field.
The field would have served as the primary playing ground for Challenger Little League, a subset of Little League that gives youths with physical and intellectual challenges in area towns a chance to play baseball. The Miracle League of Northern Connecticut had been leading efforts to build the field in Tolland.
In a statement released last week town officials said that despite best efforts from all parties, "We could not reach an agreement amendable to all parties involved ... it's in the best interest of all to use an alternate location."
The town had already committed just over $5,000 to an engineering study for the field this year and was prepared to dedicate $200,000 of federal pandemic relief funds to building the field if an agreement had been reached.
Despite this, interim Town Manager Lisa Hancock said Tuesday that because the town did not want to pay for the field's maintenance and replacement costs, negotiations fell through.
Hancock said the Miracle League was trying to have its own funding in place for at least one field replacement, but some Town Council members did not want the town to absorb the cost for any future replacement or maintenance.
Once it became apparent that the Miracle League would not agree with the desired terms, Hancock said, the town decided to end negotiations.
"It wasn't fair to them to keep prolonging things," Hancock said Tuesday.
In its own statement released last week, the Miracle League organizers said they are "disappointed that Tolland has withdrawn," but that they are "excited about the new opportunities and partnerships in the near future."
Laurel Leibowitz, who has helped lead the effort to build the Miracle Field with her husband, Steve, said Tuesday that she is hopeful a new location for the field in a neighboring town would soon be announced.
"We will build this field," she said, adding that the Miracle League is continuing to fundraise and has come close to raising $200,000, well on the way to its $500,000 goal.
"This change in location will not slow the momentum," the Miracle League said.
Some Town Council members expressed disappointment about the town failing to reach an agreement to build the field, but expressed their continuing support for the Miracle League's goals.
"I'm disappointed, I thought it would be good for our community," Councilwoman Colleen Yudichak said, adding, "I wish them the best wherever they go ... I'll support them."
Councilman Lou Luba said today he is "sad to see that negotiations broke down," but that the field was originally proposed as having no cost to the town and the town was always upfront about not wanting to pay for field replacement costs.
He said if the town were left fully responsible for the replacement costs, it would be a failure of due diligence.
"I think everybody wanted it to work," Council Chairman Steve Jones said. He said there were a lot of concerns and uncertainty, and ultimately the council decided to keep to the advice of the town's attorney and end negotiations.
Still, Jones encouraged Tolland residents to keep supporting the Miracle League and help them fundraise.
"I'm still confident that they will meet their goals," he said.
The Miracle League's next fundraising event is a golf tournament to be held at Topstone Golf Course in South Windsor on June 20.
Ben covers Vernon and Stafford for the Journal Inquirer.
