By Dan Murphy
Westchester County Executive George Latimer held a press conference last week to announce his signature on an Inter-Municipal Agreement between Westchester County government and the City of Mt. Vernon concerning the design, construction and renovation of Memorial Field. Over the last 10 years, the field, track, tennis bubble and grandstand have either fallen into disrepair or have been torn down.
Instead of playing the blame game, Latimer presented a can-do attitude and a county government that simply wants to help restore and re-open the field so the people of Mt. Vernon can once again enjoy it for walking, running, Little League sports, concerts – or whatever they decide to do with it.
“For over 10 years, the prospective repair and re-opening of Memorial Field in Mount Vernon has laid fallow for a number of different reasons,” said Latimer. “While I have only been on this job for almost 12 months, I know Memorial Field well – it was where I had my high school graduation. Earlier this year, we held a meeting with city officials after which we made the decision to make the offer through an inter-municipal agreement that the county will take the lead on the completion of this project – and solely for its completion, not its management. The Mount Vernon City Council approved the agreement, on Monday night the County Board of Legislators approved the amended agreement, and I am signing it here today.”
In 2009, the county approved $9.7 million in spending to build a new grandstand, fields and a track at the park, which has been used over the years not only by Mount Vernon, but the whole Westchester community. The county advanced $3.4 million of that money to the project. The initial agreement with Mount Vernon required the city to contribute $3 million to the project, and gave the city responsibility for managing construction.
Although plans were completed and ground was broken in 2011, a series of events – including changes to the plan made by the city without county approval – brought the project to a halt.
The amended agreement approved Monday caps the county’s funding for the project at the initially appropriated $9.7 million. An additional $5 million state grant, secured by Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, will be managed by the county. With Mt. Vernon also required to contribute $3 million, that gives the project a total of $17.7 million in funds to survey, design and construct a new park, field and track.
The county is not responsible for the ongoing Department of Environmental Conservation review of construction debris that was illegally dumped on the field several years ago. The City of Mount Vernon will have to agree to a site remediation plan to remove the debris, and have it removed, before any construction work can begin.
A lawsuit filed against the city by the owners of a tennis bubble that was taken down will also have to be resolved before the county can begin any construction.
But Latimer stated that the county will move forward with the survey and design work, which should be completed in six months – hopefully with enough time for Mt. Vernon to resolve the DEC and tennis bubble issues so that ground may be broken to restore the field to its former glory.
“This field has a personal presence for me,” said Latimer. “I graduated and walked on that field to receive my diploma. We had Little League games and concerts growing up as a teenager in Mt. Vernon. It is an iconic venue and we just want to see it returned to what it was. We don’t want to control it.”
Latimer was joined by County Legislators Lyndon Williams and David Tubiolo, who both represent Mt. Vernon on the County Board.
“I owe a lot of gratitude to the Latimer administration for their tremendous work of the last 12 months,” said Williams. “For the first time in 10 years, Mount Vernon residents can realistically look forward to a day when Memorial Field will be restored. I’m happy that County Executive George Latimer agreed with my request earlier this year for the county to take over the project. Memorial Field should be a jewel for the City of Mt. Vernon. It should never have been allowed to fall into such disrepair, especially since an agreement to fix things has been in place for years. I’m excited now, with the county in charge, that things will begin moving forward and it really should assure Mt. Vernon residents that they will see more than just a pile of rubble sitting on Memorial Field.”
Legislator Tubiolo added: “Thank you to County Executive Latimer and my colleagues on the Board of Legislators for helping to make this happen. This is a legacy project meant for the people of Mt. Vernon. This is something that needs to be done, and it is something that we are doing. At the end of the day, the children of Mt. Vernon – and Westchester County – will benefit.”
Latimer underscored another point related to his administration and his first year in office; he prefers to move forward and resolve issues rather than oppose one another in the media or in the political arena. “We want to show people that reasonable people can work together, that we can work together across party lines, that we can work together across different levels of government in order to actually get things done and solve a problem,” he said.
The surreal part of the press conference was that neither Mayor Thomas nor City Council President Lisa Copeland attended the announcement. That question was raised by CBS reporter Tony Aielo, who asked: “Why are you involving the Thomas administration in any way? The constant debate on Memorial Field is the reason we are here today?”
Latimer once again took the high and hopeful road, saying, “We have to double-down on democracy,” and that after meeting with the City Council, mayor and city comptroller, all three elected branches of city government appear to be on the same page and want the county to help fix, repair and open Memorial Field.
Aielo also asked Legislator Williams if he and the people of Mt. Vernon are fed up with the finger pointing and blame game that occurred prior to Latimer’s arrival, over the 10 years with three mayors and two county executives. “You are right, people are fed up with the way this project has been handled, but they are not defeated,” said Williams. “We now have county government willing to step forward and lead. We can’t guarantee that others will follow, but the message here today is this is an opportunity and a path to move forward, with a county administration willing to help. That is different from where we were a few years ago.”
Latimer was also asked about the $3.4 million sent to the city back in 2009. “The IMA includes an audit of where that money went and how it was spent. We want to see receipts and if the money was not spent on Memorial Field, it will be the obligation of the city to apply it to this project.
“We could have gotten out of this and walked away, but we didn’t do that because we want to solve the problem,” said Latimer. “Our mission isn’t to punish anyone and we understand that Mt. Vernon is under financial stresses.”
Who has the final call and say over the project’s construction? The county. “It will be the county, but the process will be open and inclusive and will be done with the input and inclusion of the people of Mt. Vernon,” said Latimer.
One ongoing debate has been whether there should be an eight-lane track, as in the past, or a six-lane track, which would accommodate a tennis bubble. No decision has been made on how many lanes there will be.
A possible timeline could have the design done by this summer, the project put out to bid at the end of the summer, and construction beginning in 2019, with a possible opening date of June 2020 – 50 years after George Latimer graduated from Mt. Vernon High School and received his diploma at Memorial Field.
Memorial Field was the site of the famous Mean Joe Greene Coca-Cola commercial in the 1970s, and the Jackson Five also performed at the field. Many local Westchester high schools also played playoff games there.
