Schools

Green Brook Board Wrestles with Fall Ball Request

Pitches request from Little League back for a new tack.

A request to approve a game schedule for a new traveling baseball league in the fall to play at Green Brook school's fields fell short of gaining the school board's approval Monday.

The request came from the Green Brook Little League, which has a lease to use the baseball fields and schedule games played on them with school board review. The league received a request from a traveling league to use the fields, and submitted the league's proposed schedule to the board for OK.

But there's a wrinkle: the Little League's lease bars the league from subleasing the fields—and some would argue the league's plan to let the traveling teams pay the league to use the fields constitutes subleasing.

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The board split on whether to approve the schedule, with the matter failing to gain the five votes needed for approval—the tally was four "yes" votes, to three "no," with Maria Piccirilli abstaining and John Sartor absent. Board members Anna Maillaro and Minnette Markus-Rodden joined board President James Benscoter  and VP Stephanie Green in support of the schedule request, while Gerald Binder, Bruce Martens and Randi Friedman voting against the request.

Bescoter then suggested a work-around may be possible if the traveling league makes a direct request to the board, instead of through the Little League, which can be handled by Superintendent Richard Labbe as a regular request for use of the field.

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