Community Board #5 took quick action at last night’s meeting at Christ the King HS in Middle Village, to lobby the Parks Department for ‘getting the play-lights sports lighting timers right,’ at Principe Park, an 8-acre ‘active park’ situated along the LIE and Maurice Avenue.
The park has synthetic turf soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball and a hard surface softball field, which is used as six pickle ball courts. The pickle ball area is heavily used, as there is a self-controlled systematic coordinated use of the courts for players. It’s not unusual to see fifty or more pickle ballers at the park at any given time.
The basketball courts are also heavily used, but according to testimony at the public forum Wednesday from Kyle Beauchamp, a hoopster from Glendale who frequents the park during evening hours, he wonders why the lights shut off at 8:35, when the lights at the other two lighted sports areas are shut off at 9:30 or 9:35? “It’s about safety for those who play until the posted time of the park’s closing,” said Beauchamp.
Steve Fiedler, parks committee chairman at the board asked for board to immediately vote to advocate to the parks department to get the timers back to keeping all the lights on until 10PM. “I don’t know why they turn off early,” Fiedler said after the meeting. “I’m going to get them to fix it,” he said. The board voted unanimously in favor of Fiedler’s proposal.
Watch Beauchamp address the board ~30 minutes into the video below.
