Grapeville ball field remains in limbo as Hempfield combines fire stations

Dec. 24--As Hempfield supervisors tie up loose ends to make the township's 12 fire stations fall under one department, assets like a Grapeville ball field are left in limbo while fire chiefs make "hard decisions" on what to keep and what to sell.

The field, at 1260 Toledo St., is utilized by an adult coed softball team that planned to bring girl's softball leagues to the area in the coming year as well as a Little League team. But the fate of the field, which is owned by the Grapeville Volunteer Fire Co., is in question after fire officials put the land up for sale, township leaders confirmed.

"We're going to see these fire departments make these hard decisions," township Manager Jason Winters said during Monday's supervisors meeting. "What is best for the community as a whole and what is best for their department moving forward. And we're going to start seeing that with these service agreements going into place."

The service agreements set guidelines for the amount of training each firefighter should have among other township regulations. Supervisors are hoping to collect them by next week and have the agreements go into effect Jan. 1 -- a process that originally started ahead of a New Jersey-based Insurance Services Office Inc., or ISO, review that has a direct correlation with a home owner's insurance rates.

While the agreements mark the fire service as one department, each station is still considered its own nonprofit, said township Solicitor Scott Avolio.

"This asset, which would be a perfect example, is something that nonprofit holds on its own and it could choose to do what it wants with that asset," Avolio said. "That would be the same for any of the other companies that exist that may own property ... Things they don't pledge to the township, the township has no control over."

Still, a group of Grapeville residents are banding together to save the field, which has become a staple in the community, said Dennis Quinn, president of the Grapeville Coed Softball Team.

An online petition has garnered more than 445 signatures, calling for the field, along with the basketball courts and playground, to remain available. A handful of residents showed up at Monday's meeting including Robert Petersen, 33, of Hempfield, vice president of the league.

"We've got enough people in the community that have signed plenty of petitions online, I've got hundreds of them with me here today of people that love this ballpark ... The last few years we've brought it from absolutely nothing and we've created a rule book for this league, we've maintained order throughout this league, we became a nonprofit organization. We rebuilt the entire field up there," Petersen said.

According to Quinn, 46, of Jeannette, residents have put in years of work at the field, including almost $3,000 that was spent on dirt to fill in the field along with hours of volunteer work in painting the concession stand, mowing the grass and maintaining playground equipment.

"I hope that some resolution will be brought forward for a recreational space to remain down there and that possibly the fire department will reconsider what they're doing," said township Supervisor Doug Weimer. "But I guess we'll have to wait and hear from them."

Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1203, [email protected] or via Twitter .

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