Orangetown Board Amends Agreement with Orangetown Mighty Midgets

The Orangetown Mighty Midget Soccer Association will begin its fall recreational schedule in a little over two weeks.

OMM Athletic Club will do that with an amended revocable use agreement with the town of Orangetown for the use of its soccer fields on Old Orangeburg Road.

The town and OMM share in the maintenance of the fields, though the town will take on more of the load as a part of the new agreement, which passed by a 4-1 vote at the town board's meeting Tuesday.

Councilman Michael Maturo was the opposing vote, questioning the additional expenses the town would be taking on, primarily through providing electricity and water to the fields.

"It appears that it would come to almost $30,000 a year that the town is taking on," Maturo said. "Under the new agreement with OMM, that is a pretty dramatic difference.

"OMM uses the field almost the whole year. The clubhouse was a gift to the town. Wouldn't it make more sense to make the clubhouse the town's responsibility and keep the field OMM's responsibility?"

Orangetown Town Attorney John Edwards has argued since the fields were built that it should be the town's responsibility to maintain them.

"These are town-owned fields and as such the town has a responsibility to maintain them," Edwards said. "The clubhouse, which cost over $2 million, immediately became property of the town."

OMM does profit from the programs it runs at the field, but it also provides recreational opportunities for over 2,000 children in the town.

"The municipality has a responsibility to provide for the recreational activities for various age groups," Edwards said. "If a private group wants to come in and help out, is there a way to do it? There is, within the parameters of the local law.

"OMM wanted to provide for the recreational needs of those whom it serves. The board at the time the field was developed agreed with that and saw that as a very large group. It continues to be a large group, perhaps even larger. The past board saw the benefit of the town entering into this public-private partnership and in doing that there were certain basic costs that would be incurred and either born by the town or by others."

Only a small percentage of the field's use is by organizations other than OMM, but Edwards pointed out that the fields are often open and unused, so it is not as if others are being excluded.

"It's not like little league," Orangetown Councilman Denis Troy said. "You have different organizations in town (for baseball). This soccer organization encompasses the entire town.

"I am totally in favor of the resolution. I was a proponent of this (the fields) in the first place. At RPC, the only development is the little league fields and the OMM field and the only reason that happened was because of the public-private partnership. This thing has been a home run for the town. Yes, they use it all the time. But over 2,000 kids will be using those fields in a couple of weeks. To me, it is a model for what public-private partnerships can do."

"A lot of people use that field to exercise," Orangetown Town Clerk Charlotte Madigan said. "It has become a family park. Young children have a play area, too. It serves a larger number than we know."

Councilman Thomas Diviny said that the town also benefits from the facility as a showpiece that helps raise property values.

"To say this doesn't benefit the town just isn't true," Diviny said. "The first thing a realtor can show a potential buyer in this town and say this is where your kids will spend their youth," Diviny said.