New turf ballfields in play this Little League season in Oyster Bay
The Town of Oyster Bay has installed four new turf ballfields in a $424,000 project, including this one at James "Pops" Sabellico Memorial Park in Farmingdale. Credit: Howard Schnapp
Little League has a new look in Oyster Bay.
The town has installed four synthetic turf ballfields, three at Abe Levitt Park in Hicksville and one at James "Pops" Sabellico Memorial Park in Farmingdale.
The $424,000 project replaced traditional fields at the parks with the new surfaces, which will be used for baseball and softball, said Brian Nevin, a town spokesman.
Multiple Little Leagues will use the fields as games kick off this spring season.
“These fields serve as home to many Little League games and we’re happy to upgrade them in a cost-effective way just in time for opening day,” Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement.
The town hired The LandTek Group, a construction company, to install the fields while town employees served as project managers, according to Nevin. He said the project was completed in December and funding came from the town's parks budget.
Artificial turf fields are easier to maintain than grass and dirt fields and usually last for up to a decade, according to town officials.
Dominick Pannitti, the commissioner of Plainedge Youth Baseball League, said the Farmingdale field already has been used intermittently on weekends when winter weather wasn't a factor.
Turf fields better absorb rain and help reduce game cancellations, according to Pannitti, who also said the aesthetic of the new fields is an upgrade.
“Hands down having a turf field looks 100 times better,” he added. “The maintenance is a lot less … it’s basically manicured for every game at the start.”
Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the City of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com.
