By Dan Murphy
The 10-year mess over Memorial Field – the Mt. Vernon stadium, track and ballfield located on the Mt. Vernon border with Pelham – continues to be the subject of dispute and disagreement between the city’s Mayor Richard Thomas, members of the Mt. Vernon City Council, and county government, led by County Executive George Latimer.
Thomas recently called the 10-year disaster at the Memorial Field stadium, track and ballfield an “abortion,” claiming that the Mt. Vernon City Council and the “political elite” are playing games, protecting pollution, and providing no solutions to problems we face. They simply want to turn the clock back to backroom deals and looking the other way on dumping on Mount Vernon.”
Thomas continued: “Through transparency, we revealed that $1.2 million was spent on demolition that never occurred and millions more were misspent building a tennis court in the middle of the track, inches away from the end zone of the football field… Accordingly, the situation with Kela Tennis is not just about them not paying approximately $500,000 in back-rent, it is also about removing illegal debris below the tennis courts.
“Despite this, as another sign of good faith, we made clear that once work commenced in 2018 we would remain committed to building back the tennis courts with a bubble in the same year along with an eight-lane track and field for all sports. Now these possibilities are in jeopardy because of petty politics.
“Like many of you, I have been chased out of other communities when I brought my friends or families to their park, including Glover Field adjacent to Target. That feeling of being asked to leave a public place brings us back to discriminatory times. Maybe Mt. Vernon should have asked more politely to share Glover Field over the past decade? Perhaps County Executive George Latimer will assist in asking Pelham Manor and their Board of Education to work with Mt. Vernon, so we, too, can have sports and recreation in our community? Although it is hard to imagine that we will be embraced after years of racial tension and sheer exclusion, even on Mt. Vernon land inside the Ice Hutch and Sports Underdome, I will hold onto hope for our better nature to prevail.
“These raw observations are real. And there are thousands of people in Mt. Vernon who deal with living a second-class status every day. These are the people that I work for, because I am one of them – displaced from Memorial Field and disinherited by the political elite,” wrote Thomas in an email to residents last month.
Thomas’ comments blaming the political elite and implying that racism is part of the reason why Memorial Field has remained closed for almost 10 years is being refuted by a majority of the City Council, and by County Legislator Lyndon Williams who represents Mt. Vernon, and by Latimer, who is considering suing the City of Mt. Vernon over Memorial Field.
Anyone who knows Latimer and his conciliatory, “let’s work together” nature understands he has no interest in suing the Democratic city where he grew up. Instead, Latimer has offered Mt. Vernon what many view as a great deal – to finally fix Memorial Field, where the county would take over construction and renovation and then hand it back to the city to operate.
Latimer wants to return to a 2008 plan to rebuild the field, when the city and the county agreed to a $12.7 million renovation, with mostly county money used to rebuild Memorial Field. That deal went off track when then-Mayor Ernie Davis sidetracked the improvements by using more than $3 million in county money to build tennis courts instead of rebuilding the grandstands.
After that, the trust in Mayor Davis from the county eroded and the county funds for the project were withheld. The only work done at Memorial Field for many years was illegal dumping by someone, nobody knows who, and nobody knows who benefitted from the dumping.
Thomas didn’t move on Memorial Field for the most part of his first year in office. Now he is moving forward, but on his own terms and without any agreement from the City Council. Thomas took down the tennis bubble in the middle of the night and without any city permits to do so. While he may have been entitled to do so because the tennis bubbles operators breached their contract by not paying the city rent, it was a strange move to make that only appears to have enflamed his relationships with the City Council and the county executive.
The City Council voted recently to permit Westchester County to rebuild Memorial Field, but Thomas is fighting that agreement in the court of public opinion by playing Mt. Vernon residents against the political elites, whoever they may be.
City Council members were able to get a restraining order from any further work to be done at Memorial Field. Before the court order, the grandstands also were torn down.
“We feel that the mayor is not capable of the task,” said Councilman Andre Wallace after the vote.
County Legislators Williams, and County Legislator David Tubiolo, who represents a small portion of Mt. Vernon, both support the county takeover of the rehab at Memorial Field.
“It is time for Memorial Field to be restored and to be enjoyed by the people of Mt. Vernon again,” said Latimer. “The county legislators that represent the city are the ones that initially asked for the county to step in. I am pleased that the Mount Vernon City Council passed a resolution to turn over the renovation of the field to the county. We are perfectly prepared to go in and get the work done. Memorial Field is an iconic field with a rich history, and we intend to get the job done and give it back to the people of Mt. Vernon.”
Not helping the matter of trust is the May indictment of Thomas for illegal use of campaign funds. Thomas continues to infer that there was criminal misconduct and wrongdoing by someone in power at Mt. Vernon City Hall at the time of the illegal dumping, and at the time the county funds were wasted.
Nobody can answer whether that inference by Thomas is true. What happened to the $2.8 million in misspent county money? Latimer is asking for $700,000 to be returned. And who, if any, city officials knew about the illegal dumping?
Certainly, Thomas is not to blame for any of the transgressions that occurred before he took office. But his lack of willingness to cooperate with someone like Latimer is curious. All Latimer wants to do is open the field for the people of Mt. Vernon. Why is Thomas opposed to that?
The only person that may be able to get to answers for the people of Mt. Vernon and for the taxpayers of Westchester County is Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, who also hails from Mt. Vernon. The time has come, respectfully, D.A. Scarpino, for you to intervene and try to discover the truth. We hope that your efforts will finally move the project forward and eventually, re-open the historic Memorial Field.
