East Butler Baseball Association moving on, still with questions
Members of the East Butler Baseball Association will no longer play in the borough the organization is named after, and administrators are in talks to have the children play its spring season at the baseball at fields in Prospect.
The association’s president, Juan Gonzalez, said the association has been banned from the fields in East Butler, and its members are now awaiting a vote from borough council to release the items they claimed after conducting an inventory earlier this month.
“We started making a list of that — we have a giant list of things to get out of there before the 2024 season,” Gonzalez said. “They are now refusing to give us anything until they come up with paperwork.”
Members and players of the association have been locked out of the fields since August, and council voted to ban them from the fields in early November. Borough council and the association each presented their own contracts for the association to use the fields, but both entities refused to sign one another’s contracts.
Gonzalez said he doesn’t know why borough council locked the association out of the fields during its season in August, and East Butler council members have declined comment regarding the situation. The borough’s solicitor, Tom Smith, has not returned calls or emails from the Eagle.
During a council meeting in September, borough council members said they stopped cooperating with the association after council got an attorney. Kevin Hesidenz, borough council president, said at the September meeting council had asked for receipts from the association for transactions on a debit card opened by council for the association. Gonzalez said the association opened its own bank account this year.
Brian Farrington, an attorney for East Butler Baseball Association, said he has been in contact with Smith since council voted on the ban, and facilitated the inventory conducted by the association’s members earlier this month. He said the land the fields are on is owned by the borough, but the association funded and installed some of the amenities on the field over time.
“The field is deeded in the borough's name,” Farrington said. “A lot of the lights and the dugout was financed through EBBA's efforts.”
East Butler Baseball Association has been around for more than 70 years but went dormant several years ago. Gonzalez said the organization regrouped in 2022. The association is now an independent nonprofit whose bank account was once held by the borough, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said borough council had asked the association to provide child clearance certifications for each of its members, as well as the association’s financial records. He said the association provided child clearances for its members, but not financial records, and added that Prospect officials have not asked for financial records for children to use its fields.
“I don't feel like any company has ever asked for finances,” Gonzalez said. “Stop trying to touch our money.”
Gonzalez said he suspects money is the motivating factor for the borough council’s impasse with the association, because it had never paid to use the fields over the years. He said members of the association plan to help maintain the fields in Prospect, because the borough is not charging the association for use of the fields.
“This is about trying to destroy a program,” Gonzalez said. “They wanted to control Speed-O Field so they could charge another team to play.”
Farrington said Smith indicated borough council will vote to release the items the association took in inventory at its next meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 4.
