LOWER MERION \u2013 Lights are coming to Lower Merion\u2019s Little League field. <\/p>\n
Lower Merion officials have approved a plan that will allow Lower Merion Little League to install lights at Gladwyne\u2019s Richie Ashburn Field. <\/p>\n
Specifically, Lower Merion Commissioners voted to authorize the township manager to execute a Memorandum of Understanding with Lower Merion Little League \u201cto establish terms and conditions under which LMLL will engage in a project comprising the construction and operation of lights at Richie Ashburn Field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donna Heller, director of parks and recreation for Lower Merion, said the agreement is a five-year plan. They will seek to automatically renew it with a one-year extension each year thereafter, unless the township wishes to terminate the agreement. The lights will become the property of Lower Merion, and it will be insured as township property. <\/p>\n
The Little League will also be responsible for funding and completing the installation and operating the lights throughout all terms and succeeding terms. The baseball league will ensure that all maintenance costs associated with the project are covered for at least 25 years, or until the term is not renewed. <\/p>\n
Under the agreement, the field lights cannot be on after 10:00 p.m. daily, and any egress or periphery lighting will not be permitted after 10:30 p.m., absent an advance approval of a time extension by the township. The only other park with lights, Vernon V. Young Park in Ardmore, has a similar lighting schedule. <\/p>\n
Wally Orlov, president of the Lower Merion Little League, told the commissioners that the program has thousands of kids. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the state of the availability of fields, we feel this proposal will add capacity for our kids to be able to meet their needs. Almost everybody at the little league, including myself, are volunteers. We have over 2,000 township kids that play in our little league. And we think this is a dream that we\u2019ve had for the last 10 years, and it\u2019s finally come to this day. We\u2019re hoping to get approval so we can offer this great opportunity for our kids. The last thing I\u2019ll say is that every township surrounding us has already implemented almost an identical structure. Havertown Little League, Radnor Wayne Little League, Media, Plymouth, White Marsh, all of that. So we\u2019re trying to offer the same thing for our kids,\u201d Orlov said. <\/p>\n
Commissioner Scott Zelov expressed his support for the lighting plan. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know, this was brought to Gladwyne Civic on a couple of occasions by Lower Mayor Little League,\u201d Zelov said. \u201cIt\u2019s a well-thought-out plan. They are fully funding it. It\u2019s needed, and we\u2019re very fortunate that we have a prosperous and successful Little League that can do this. I support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Louis Rossman also gave his support for the light project. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a great thing, and when you go to other townships, I\u2019m always jealous of the lights and the fields that they have and the amount of land they have to use, and we just don\u2019t have that. We have a developed, wonderful township, and I applaud Lower Merion Little League. They\u2019re funding it. It seems like the downside is not great, and they\u2019ve been very cooperative. I\u2019m sure if there\u2019s going to be a problem, then it can be easily resolved. So I look forward to uh the lights in the field and I think it would increase the activity there and it\u2019s a wonderful project,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Little League officials said they hope to have the lights installed this spring for the upcoming season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 Lights are coming to Lower Merion\u2019s Little League field. Lower Merion officials have approved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[182,183,185,184,186,200,139,28,199],"class_list":["post-97024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mlt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}