General

Gentile hits a home run with new field for St. Anselms

March 26, 2013 Denise Romano

Photo courtesy of Sal Galvano

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Its a grand slam.

The McKinley ballfields will undergo a major overhaul and will be the new home field for St. Anselms Little League, thanks to $2.2 million allocated in the 2013 budget through the efforts of Councilmember Vincent Gentile.

This is a good thing that we can do with city capital money even in these tough economic times that we have, Gentile told this paper. It will be an exciting time, as the St. Patricks League has the field I renovated for them on 97^th Street and Shore Road.

The space at 78^th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway will be totally transformed, said Gentile. The cracked asphalt will be replaced with new state-of-the-art synthetic turf, there will be access from the Seventh Avenue as well as the Fort Hamilton Parkway side, and there will be new amenities.

Gentile explained that first there must be a process to select a designer. It depends on the bidding process. The change in mayoral administrations may mean some delay, but within the next year or two it should be done, he said.

The councilmember noted that the impetus behind the new field was Pam Pazarecki, president of St. Anselms Youth Activities and Eileen Johnson, vice president of St. Anselms Youth Activities.

We started the conversation a number of years ago, he recalled. It will be a really exciting home for the League and the kids. It will transform the park and make it a more attractive place.

Pazarecki said that she was ecstatic about the renovations.

I am so excited that we finally have a field we can call our home. Councilmember Gentile has been absolutely wonderful in working with us in funding the project, she said. Its a whole lot of wasted space and we have such a large baseball program. This will be more space for the kids to play.

I cant tell you how grateful we are, Pazarecki concluded.