Nighttime baseball is no fun for some residents
Summer baseball might be a quintessential American pastime, but a number of Plato Center residents are crying foul over the idea of more night games in their neighborhood.
"It's bad enough to have noise and parking problems every summer," Deborah Jensen said. "But now to deal with this all through the night? If I'd have known this was going to happen 10 years ago, I never would have moved in."
The Central District Baseball League, Burlington's 550-player youth league, approached Central Uniit District 301 last fall about installing night lights at one of its four Plato Center baseball fields.
The fields near See Saw Day Care Center, formerly Plato Center Elementary, are owned by the district.
Adjacent to Russell Road, the field with the proposed lighting is one of two fields used by the league's Bronco division of 11- and 12-year-old boys.
"Both Bronco fields are unlighted and we've run into a number of scheduling conflicts," said Keith Boron, president of the league and a District 301 school board member.
A group of Plato Center residents, including Jensen, first approached the board about their concerns last month.
Very few members of the neighborhood, Jensen said, support the proposal. "All of us that have lived here for a long time already know our summer is just ruined."
Joe Hulke, whose home is next to the field being considered, has lived in Plato Center for 36 years.
Like Jensen, Hulke has a number problems with the proposal.
"There's no parking," Hulke said. "There's a time when two trucks can't pass in the middle of the road."
And, he said, "people like to enjoy the privacy of their yards. All of a sudden you have this bright light shining on you."
The league's plan is supported by the Kane County Board, Boron said. The county requested to see the results of the field's photometrics testing.
Photometric testing is used to determine how far lights would shine out into the surrounding neighborhood.
At the Plato Center field, "the nearest resident will have an effect of .05 candle lights. … Essentially the moonlight hitting his house would be brighter than the ball field lights," Boron said.
If approved by the school board Monday, South Elgin contractor Ron Jones and Musco Sports Lighting will install the lights the second week of April, Boron said.
Ready for use by early May, the league intends to start using the lights for night games after June 5, when District 301 students begin their summer vacations.
"Timing issues will likely be considered by the board," Boron said. "These are 12-year-old kids. … It's not like we want them out playing at 11 o'clock at night."
Board member Cathy Normoyle said she sees no harm in adding lights to the Plato Center field.
"We've rented the fields there to the league for decades. It's to benefit the kids in the district," Normoyle said.