Drainage work set for this summer . . .

YORKTOWN — As the weather finally gets nicer, the Yorktown Sports Park is getting busier.
Baseball, softball and soccer games are up and running (and batting and kicking) — when the spring weather allows, anyway. Members of the YMCA and Munciana Volleyball continue to use their shared building at the park, and walkers and runners are hitting the path that loops around much of the park at Delaware County Road 600-W and River Road.
Dating back to at least 2007, when the town council approved $1.9 million in bonds to fund a new sports park, the property still has some work to be done.
It’s also still the source of some controversy, with opponents objecting to the costs and handling of the project since its inception, and a lingering civil suit by a contractor hired to work on its construction.
The next step in the sports park project for the town is a project to improve drainage for the property, notably for the soccer fields, at a cost estimated earlier this spring around $350,000, work that is now out for bids. A drainage line will be installed going north through Westbrook to a creek, with work expected to be done this summer, according to Yorktown Town Manager Pete Olson.
During discussions about drainage issues several years ago, the problem was blamed on lack of cooperation from neighboring landowners and an original expectation that the existing drainage would be enough.
Though the town owns the property, the groups using the park are responsible for the care of their own playing areas, and could make further improvements or changes with the town’s approval, Olson said.
Lon Fox, president of the Delaware County Futbol Club, which uses the sports park soccer fields, said some problems like drainage issues were inevitable with a project this size, but he noted the problems to be managed were for “a facility we didn’t have five years ago.”
The soccer club — which also uses the Muncie Sportsplex fields east of Muncie — saw an immediate participation increase of “15-18 percent” when it first started using the Yorktown fields three years ago, said Fox (who became a Yorktown Town Council member this past January). Now the DCFC West program at Yorktown consistently has has up to 500 kids involved, in addition to about 250 at the DCFC East, according to Fox.
The soccer fields are also used by the high school teams, as are the softball and baseball fields. Fox and Yorktown YMCA Executive Director Kristen McConnell both said all the organization using the sports park work to coordinate schedules for parking purposes, particularly for big tournaments. “We try not to plan two major events on the same day,” McConnell said.
The town is in the midst of a civil lawsuit regarding a contract dispute with York Construction, the company that did much of the work on the park. Town attorney Steve Murphy said the case in Delaware Circuit Court 4 was over payments the town held back from York after the company did not finish work leveling the slope of baseball and softball fields, so the town had to step in and complete it.
Bruce Munson, attorney for York Construction, said the dispute was over about $70,000 “and a finger-pointing match held as to whose fault it was to change dirt and sod to change elevations.”
On April 29, Judge John Feick issued an order granting the town’s motion for partial summary judgment.
Some Yorktown residents have questioned the town’s spending on the park project since its start, and continue to do so as elements of the project — and its costs — drag on. Various town officials, however, have argued that the facility has been worth the costs and long-term effort in terms of improving the community and drawing people from around the region to Yorktown.
“I believe the park is doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” Olson said. “It’s a quality of life initiative which is beneficial to our community.” He credited the park with having met goals of increasing recreational opportunities for youth and residents, and helping “to sell the community” to prospective residents.
SODA Blog – May 2013