Ken and Gary Sheffer, whose grandfather Elmer Sheffer got a job during the Great Depression working at the WPA project that created the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center and went on to become Common Council president and then mayor of Hudson, have argued passionately that the plans to rehab the baseball field disrespect the historic significance of the site and will ruin the historic landscape. Ken Sheffer has created a website devoted to the history of the site. Gary Sheffer's thoughts about the plan can be read here and here.
In the process of their advocacy, the Sheffers have assembled an enormous amount of information about Laurie Davidson Cox (1883-1968), the nationally known park designer and landscape architect who designed the landscape and playing fields of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center; about Montgomery C. Smith, the superintendent of schools during the Great Depression, whose vision for "something fine and noble and enduring" was realized in the educational center; and the roles of others, including Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, in conceiving and implementing this early WPA project, which changed the fortunes for many Hudson families during that era.
Our office found that the plan will not adversely impact the eligibility of the M. C. Smith School property. We do however request that district consider using a dark coated perimeter fencing, which will help to minimize the visual impacts of the new installation.
The height of the fence proposed in the plan reviewed by SHPO was four feet. At the Facilities Committee meeting on Wednesday, Maria Suttmeier, the current superintendent of schools, suggested that, for the safety of the players, the fence in the outfield be six feet high.
On Wednesday, it was decided to go ahead with the plan to rehabilitate the field, despite the Sheffers' protests that the plan will "partially ruin the landscape," and the resulting field "will not be useful" because it will be significantly smaller than what is currently recommended for high school play.
For those not intimately familiar with the baseball field behind Montgomery C. Smith, Gossips recommends a two-minute drone video of the field by Glenn Wheeler, published on YouTube yesterday. Click here to view it.
Carol,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the coverage of this issue. This is Gary Sheffer. Throughout the process, we asked the district to consider the historic nature of the sports complex in making its decision, to repair the damage caused by years of neglect, and to develop a long-term plan to make it a recreational, sports, and educational asset to students and the community. We objected to a plan to put baseball fencing and dugouts in the middle of the running track, defacing the original design of this historic site. We lost the argument but I do want to clarify a few points.
First, the district's stated reason for choosing MCSES over Hudson High for a baseball field -- sun and wind at the high school -- is contradicted by the fact that the town of Greenport has a world-class baseball field just a mile away with the same view of the Catskills where baseball is played without a problem. Also, Hudson High will continue to play junior varsity baseball and JV and girls softball at the high school.
The real reason the district chose MCSES is baseball got left out of the construction of the new football/track complex at Hudson High. The district says the "baseball community" came to it last year and said it wanted its primary field to be MCSES. However, this presented a challenge -- a modern-size baseball field with fences does not fit on the 80-year-old MCSES field. To squeeze the fences in and preserve some portion of the running track -- a promise the district previously made -- the district decided to build an undersized field that in places is far below the state's recommended minimums for size. In fact, the field dimensions for home plate to center field, and for foul territory are almost identical to fields recommended for 13- and 14-year-old Pony League games. Specifically, the distance from home field to center field will be only 311 feet. The state recommends a minimum of 350 feet and preferably more (as do most baseball experts). State baseball officials deferred the decision on the size of the MCSES field to the school district, telling it that the minimum sizes were a "should" not a "must." In other words, if you want to build an undersized field, we can't stop you.
So the end result is that the fences will mar the open sight lines that make this field so special and the varsity team gets a field sized -- in areas important to integrity of play and player safety -- for 13- and 14-year olds. No baseball expert, field builder, official, coach, athletic association, or anyone else that I could find recommends a field the size or shape that Hudson is about to build for its high school team, which deserves better.
I found this link online https://www.sportsrec.com/6853049/difference-between-college-and-high-school-baseball-fields.
ReplyDelete"The National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS, suggests that the nearest point of the outfield wall or fence should be at least 300 feet from home plate within fair territory, and the center line to the outfield wall be at least 350 feet."
"Unlike the NFHS, the NCAA highly recommends that college baseball fields have an outfield fence that is “solid and secure.” The association recommends that permanent fences be at least 6 feet tall, but 8 feet is the preferred height. The NCAA discourages wooden fences made from 1-by 4-inch boards and nylon fences because they are considered unsafe and insecure."
Also this link: https://www.coversports.com/blog/baseball-field-dimensions-what-you-need-to-know/
ReplyDeleteBASEBALL REDUNDANCY ... are us!
ReplyDeleteHCSD is a financial black hole for the Hudson tax payers.
Seems like another smoke screen of crooked facts being presented by HCSD. They follow the path that they travel the most. If I like you, I'll help you. If I don't forget it.
ReplyDelete