Uniontown Redevelopment Authority notes progress at Bailey Park
The baseball field at Bailey Park in Uniontown is getting a much-needed facelift.
City Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Mark Rafail said a contractor began working on Bailey Park last Sunday.
The authority awarded JT Pro Turf the infield reconstruction project in November for a total cost of $22,986, a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-funded project.
“We have actually moved home plate 10 feet towards the outfield, which now lines up with the new foul poles,” Rafail said. “The infield is actually the right length, and people can see home plate from the bleachers now.”
Rafail said that Uniontown Area High School was slated to play a baseball game there Monday.
“All the lights work. The bathrooms are fixed,” Rafail said at the authority’s meeting, adding that it’s up to the city to purchase coolers, freezers and a microwave for concessions.
In other business, the authority board authorized Rafail to advertise on an annual basis going forward for participants for the farmers’ markets that coincide with the Storey Square Summer Concert Series.
The Storey Square Summer Concert Series will run on Thursdays from June 6 to Aug. 29, skipping July 4, Rafail said.
The board was also addressed by Jeff DiMaio, owner of Titlow Tavern & Grille, who voiced frustrations over what he said was inaction regarding a city sewer line collapse wiping out a retaining wall on his property back in 2007, resulting in him losing 15 parking spaces and related business.
Rafail said that a project to address a collapsed sewer line there was put out to bid in 2017 but yielded bids that came in unexpectedly and prohibitively high.
“(W)e had about $60,000,” Rafail said. “That’s what it was estimated it would come in at, but it didn’t. So what the city has done since then is we have applied for an additional $70,000.”
Rafail stressed that the money was CDBG funding that could not be used to address a new retaining wall for DiMaio’s property in response to DiMaio’s stated desire for a new wall.
“I keep reinvesting in the downtown, and I just feel like I’m getting nothing in return,” DiMaio said. “I’m just taken advantage of, taken for granted.”
“We respect all of your efforts,” authority Solicitor Samuel J. Davis told DiMaio. “You know I always have. The city does, and so does the redevelopment authority. We’re going to get it done. We don’t want to lose that business down there.”
Rafail said the authority’s Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development grant manager indicated after the meeting that new 2018 CDBG funding has been moved to the next step for approval by DCED, since the CDBG is a DCED program.