Excuse this beating of a dead horse
You’ve heard – or read – this before: South Union Township and the city of Uniontown should get together to develop, eh, redevelop, Bailey Park. That is, greater Bailey Park.
What is “greater Bailey Park?” That would be Bailey Park plus the fabulous new indoor soccer facility which South Union just opened on the township side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
It would be too much to call the new place a soccer “palace,” but it must seem so to the youngsters and their parents who are flocking there – beneficiaries of the vision, expertise, and wherewithal of the township’s supervisors.
South Union has itself a first-rate facility that happens to sit a mere two-lane street away from the city line and Bailey Park. It shouldn’t escape anyone’s attention that the Bailey Park parking lot is being utilized by the soccer moms and dads (and grandparents and others) who are eager to see their kiddos in action.
Use of the parking lot by soccer patrons was entirely predictable. The lot, recently developed by the city, faces the new facility’s front door. It’s a pretty sure bet that few of the people parking there have any idea they’re leaving their vehicles on city land to walk the few feet across Pennsylvania Avenue to the soccer haven.
Regular people don’t care about municipal boundaries. Municipal officials must care. Property lines must be respected. Besides, South Union officials aren’t elected to serve the interests of Uniontown residents, or vice-versa. Taking on long-term debt with another entity can be scary.
In this instance, however, a rethinking is in order. What actions are possible and prudent and smart when municipalities pretty much share the same footprint?
The soccer building and Bailey Park are like two peas in the same pod. Or they should be.
Municipal purists will say – we can’t work together. But think of it this way: The two entities – South Union and Uniontown – are already working together, informally. There’s the parking lot. And it strains the imagination to think that city kids, if not now then certainly later, won’t find their way onto the plexiglass-enclosed playing surface of the soccer building. The same goes for city-owned Bailey Park and residents of South Union.
Uniontown officials have already made a start on remodeling Bailey Park, whose history goes back at least to the 1920s. (Baby Boomers have no trouble recalling the late, great rendition of Bailey Park of the 1950s and ’60s. I’ve listened to the eagerly told stories of folks – mostly guys – who played either baseball or basketball there in the latter third of the 20th century and a little beyond.)
Night baseball is now being played under a bright, new lighting system. There’s an electronic scoreboard. A building or two has been razed. The last time I checked there were plans for a water park of some sort and an indoor baseball practice facility. There’s already the expanded parking lot adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue.
The fact is, Bailey Park has plenty of space so that more than a few visions can be accommodated and realized there. Soccer, pickleball, adult wiffle ball, tag football, kids’ state of the art swings, slides and such, a disc golf practice range, the old standbys tennis and basketball. Take your pick of these and other possibilities.
(The possibilities are not infinite, owing to the acreage that’s available. Careful consideration and judgment will be required to pin down exactly what might go where.)
Where to start? The good news is that the first step has already been taken: the parking spaces across Pennsylvania Avenue from the new soccer building. Perhaps township and city officials have already talked this over. If they have, that’s all the better.
It’s good to start small, in this case, very small. A handshake, a wink, an A-ok. That will do. In a few weeks or months, maybe the two sides will feel compelled to put something on paper. As the webpage WeconservePa on multiple municipality cooperation puts it, a handshake is sometimes shaky ground to stand on. Having “nothing in writing [can lead] to misunderstanding and problems.”
According to the webpage – a joint endeavor of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association – the state has cleared the way legislatively for two or more local governmental bodies to get together on projects of joint interest.
The Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1999 designated several collaborative mechanisms, including agreements, authorities, commissions, council of government arrangements, purchase of service contracts, and joint boards.
But first of all, there’s the matter of trust and commitment. Is this something the two sides really want to do? Talk about beating a dead horse.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.