Molloy to upgrade village athletic fields

Rockville Centre Village and Molloy College are working on a $6-million proposal that would upgrade the village's four existing athletic fields with synthetic turf and construct an additional new field.

The proposed agreement would provide multipurpose playing fields for soccer, baseball, softball, field hockey and lacrosse, Mayor Francis X. Murray announced Tuesday.

"We are going to have some of the best sports fields in Nassau County," said Murray, adding the current fields are in "poor condition" due to overuse.

Rockville Centre-based Molloy would pay the full cost of the upgrades at the village-owned Skelos Sports Complex, Lister Field and Centennial Park in return for gaining home fields for its softball, field hockey and baseball teams, village officials said. The fields would be available to the village's sports organizations, including the soccer club and Little League teams, they said.

The partnership "will have a lasting and positive effect on the children in our community," Little League president Tom Bucaria said in a statement.

The private college's softball and lacrosse teams have used the sports complex for the past 10 years. The new fields would meet NCAA standards, college officials said.

"A great college needs great athletic facilities," said Edward J. Thompson, Molloy's vice president for advancement. "We needed to provide better fields for our athletes and the village needed better fields. It was a mutual need and we are happy to work with them on it."

Murray said the proposal, in the works since October, is subject to village board approval at its Feb. 13 meeting. The five-member board is expected to pass the plan, he said.

Under the proposal, Klein Field at the Skelos Sports Complex would be turned into a softball field with a clay infield and a fenced, synthetic turf outfield, with room for a T-ball field. The expected completion date for the complex is fall 2012.

Lister Field on Sunrise Highway would be a synthetic turf field hockey venue with multipurpose markings allowing several simultaneous games.

Further south at Centennial Park, the current Barasch/Pette fields would be turned into a fenced synthetic turf baseball field that also could accommodate soccer and lacrosse. The field should be finished by spring 2013.

Across South Park Avenue, the current Ketler/Bligh fields would be combined into a fenced baseball field with a synthetic turf infield that also would accommodate two youth soccer games. Nearby, the village's former debris holding site would be turned into a large natural turf practice field.

Molloy would use the fields for games and practice primarily during late spring and fall, said college and village officials. They estimated Molloy would occupy the fields about 20 percent of the available time. "We all sat down and worked out the scheduling," Murray said. "It will work because everybody is on board."