Let There be Light: Vets Softball Field May Soon Host Night Games

Hopatcong Little League seems closer to getting what it wants.

The idea of putting lights on Veterans Field's softball diamond moved nearer to reality at Thursday's Open Space Commission meeting at borough hall.

Mayor Sylvia Petillo said the borough would research installation costs of wooden and steel lighting poles.

"There's more than enough money to pay for it," she said. "I think it would be a project that would complete Veterans, and it's something that's needed."

Little League President Cathy Bowen hopes to have the lights installed by the spring.

"If they keep delaying it and delaying it, then it won't do us a bit of good," she said.

Bowen said the town's softball and younger youth baseball programs would benefit most from the lights. She said it would allow the town to host playoff tournaments and play more night games.

"We are getting jammed onto some nasty fields," she said. "We were playing softball on a baseball field this past season because we don't have the facilities."

But, perhaps most importantly, it would give the children a place to play off of school property, Bowen said. The district has been charging the town's youth recreation programs for facility use due to a slashed budget.

Bowen said Little League was often forced to play at the school-owned Civic Center fields at night, which cost the program money. Placing lights on a town field would free them from using school property.

Bowen said Little League could be forced to raise its registrations rates since its "at the town's mercy."

"Because that's where I am right now," she said. "I have people coming up to me crying because they can't afford the $75. They just don't have that kind of money.

Petillo said the fields would only need four lights, not the usual six.

Bowen hoped the town would follow Little League's lighting guidelines.

Chairman Cliff Lundin said the Open Space Board should be ready to vote on the lighting estimates by its Oct. 14 meeting.