Plum Council Plans to Issue Permit to PBSA

Plum officials are hoping to start the spring Little League baseball/softball season soon.

While most Little League organizations already have started registering children for the upcoming season, a permit for use of the eight borough ballfields has yet to be issued to a sports association in Plum.

However, borough Solicitor Bruce Dice said Monday that officials plan to issue a permit to the Plum Baseball & Softball Association—a new nonprofit organization—by Friday.

Plum District Magistrate Linda Zucco ruled last month that the Plum Borough Athletic Association has violated its lease with the borough, therefore terminating it.

Though PBAA officials said they the decision early last week, they ended up filing an appeal by mid-week. At the time, PBAA President Bob Schmidt said at the time that the PBAA does not have intentions to get in the way of the new baseball/softball season, but needed more time to inventory assets, remove them from the field and then lawfully distribute them, following guidelines set by the Attorney General's office, which oversees nonprofit organizations.

"I'm an attorney, and that flies in the face of what I know to mean to take an appeal," Dice said.

Dice said Monday that borough officials will approach the PBAA and offer to let the association keep its property on the fields for as long as it needs, as long as it doesn't interrupt the ball season.

"I don't see that as an issue," he said.

If the matter isn't resolved by Friday, Dice said he will file a complaint in response to the PBAA's appeal. If that complaint is issued, officials will be ready to issue a permit to PBSA.

Dice said the PBAA doesn't have exclusive rights to the fields, but essentially, the organization could fight the issuance of a lease to another organization.

"The indication is they will not oppose," Dice said. "If the PBAA challenges that, we have a problem."

Dave Seitz, vice president of the PBSA, said the organization is "pretty much ready to go."

"The hold up is the lease," Seitz said.

Registration would be held the first weekend of March, a capital budget is in place and bank accounts will be set up.

Jim Gilboy, PBSA treasurer, said the group is working on getting bids for insurance.

"The things we need to take care of are doable," he said.

Councilman Keith Nowalk expressed concern about having a "split borough" if the PBSA takes over the youth baseball/softball program.

Seitz said nobody will know for sure how the string of events have impacted the community until after registration, but he thinks the number of players will be consistent with that of previous years.

"We're going to lose a few," he said. "There's no doubt."

More information about the PBSA can be found on the association's website.

Seitz said the PBSA board will try to meet with the PBAA this week to resolve issues without the court.