Two Dickson City business owners are partnering to build a youth sports complex on some of the borough’s only data center-zoned land.
The owners of neighboring Enterprise Street businesses Talk Shirty to Me and Kriger Pipeline Inc. acquired about 17 acres along the Lackawanna River in the northeast corner of Dickson City to build a youth sports complex to host tournaments and provide a place for kids to train with performance metrics, said Ron Augelli, a Jessup resident who owns custom apparel shop Talk Shirty to Me.
Operating as American Youth Development DC LLC, the business owners purchased the land for $900,000 from Carrier Coal Corp. and its Carrier Coal Enterprises LP, according to a property transaction recorded Tuesday with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds. Keystone Sanitary Landfill co-owners Louis and Dominick DeNaples signed the deed on behalf of Carrier Coal as president and vice president, respectively.
American Youth Development DC uses the address 859 Enterprise St., Dickson City, which corresponds with Kriger Pipeline; Alfred “Butch” Kriger Jr. registered the limited liability company with the Pennsylvania Department of State on March 2 using the same address, according to a certification of organization obtained by The Times-Tribune.
The site of the proposed sports complex is behind the Giant supermarket on Main Street and just southeast of Railroad Street.
The youth sports complex is much needed for the area, Augelli said.
“We’re bringing some sunshine to the area instead of all the darkness that’s coming,” he said. “(We) bought that chunk of land to kind of put a little hold on it. … Now we’re turning it into something nice.”
By developing a youth sports complex, it effectively takes one of the only sections of Dickson City zoned for data centers off the market.
The land falls into the borough’s light manufacturing district, which conditionally allows data centers with a slew of restrictions. Borough council voted Feb. 12 to amend its zoning to regulate data centers by making them conditional uses in its light manufacturing district that includes land on Enterprise Street near Eagle Lane and American Youth Development’s property.
The project is still in its early stages, but Augelli is optimistic after pitching it to Dickson City officials.
“We’re zoned for it, and now we’re just in the planning stages of how big we’re going to go, and when we’ll be breaking ground,” Augelli said.
The idea for the sports complex arose from Augelli’s role running a private basketball club and having to travel out of the area to places like Allentown and Manheim for tournaments for younger kids in the kindergarten to fourth grade range, he said.
“You can see the people coming from all over the tri-state to participate,” Augelli said. “It really opened our eyes.”
While there are other local sports complexes, they don’t run tournaments for young kids, he said.
“We want to focus on specific sports so that our children could get more out of sports when they’re younger,” Augelli said. “We have a long road ahead of us, but it won’t take too long.”
The complex will give kids the opportunity to “train at a higher level” with more than just coaching, Augelli said.
Augelli works with professional sports teams through his custom apparel company, including the Philadelphia 76ers.
“The technology that I’ve seen in their practice facilities — we’re bringing up here,” Augelli said, explaining they will use that technology to track performance metrics for kids using the complex.
He emphasized the sports complex will be open to other trainers who will be able to share space and court time at their complex to train their young athletes.
Augelli hopes to eventually expand American Youth Sports Development beyond Dickson City and envisioned someday building townhouses on remaining land on the site.
“There’s just so much we can do back there,” he said. “We’re looking to make a positive impact.”