At the Plainsboro Township Committee meeting on Wednesday, February 8, Business Administrator Robert Sheehan made a recommendation to the committee that will bring local kids a new wintertime activity. If construction goes according to plans, Plainsboro little leaguers will be stepping up to a new plate — indoors — within the next 12 months.
The Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League got the go-ahead for building an indoor “training and player development facility” at Plainsboro Community Park, adjacent to the baseball fields, as the township committee voted in favor of site plans that have been submitted. To boot, local Plainsboro architecture firm Gittings Associates, PC of Forrestal Road rendered the building’s design, which was custom-tailored to fit its park setting.
Sheehan outlined the next steps in what has been a decade-long process.
“The league’s architect will be working closely with the township’s code enforcement staff, and the process also includes the preparation of a lease with necessary conditions to memorialize the arrangements. With the committee’s consent I will begin to work with (township attorney) Michael W. Herbert to prepare a document,” Sheehan told the committee.
Tim Lockwood, president of the Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League, attended the meeting along with league operations chief Raymond Cella. Both men were congratulated by the committee as the meeting concluded. It’s been a drawn-out process as Lockwood and Cella said CPLL has worked to raise money for the project over the past decade. The CPLL is currently in the process of finalizing the expected cost of the project, but Lockwood’s primary estimate is between $150,000 and $200,000.
“A big part of it will be paid for by the efforts of CPLL families over the past 10 years. They started looking into it about eight years ago and have been raising money for it ever since,” Lockwood says.
Lockwood said CPLL must find for a sponsor to pay for the facility’s construction. CPLL will start an outreach program to attract local Plainsboro businesses and corporations to pitch in with funds in the next one to two months, Lockwood says. He does not anticipate little leaguers directly involved in fundraising efforts, saying it will be more for the parents and board members at this point, but he sees the horizon as very positive for continued fundraising.
“We’ve got 300 families involved in the league and we have a wide variety of contacts and professionals to approach through our various local networks. It’s a matter of being able to talk to the right people to see if they can help us,” he said.
Lockwood identified Dan Wheeler, managing partner of Sitrof Technologies based in Princeton, as a key contact as his company recently donated $5,000 to the project. Wheeler, who lives in Cranbury, was a coach in the Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League where his son also played baseball for several years. Wheeler is also a local product, attending the former Trenton State College and earning an MBA from Rider University.
Lockwood says that Wheeler wanted to take a more active role with CPLL’s development, and he reached out to Lockwood in December to say Sitrof could offer some financial support.
#b#Looks Matter#/b#
The facility will measure 80 feet by 70 feet and its interior will feature a lobby, two equipment areas and the main practice field, which will be astroturf on top of gravel.
The building’s exterior was designed to fit in well with the rest of Plainsboro Community Park. The metal siding and gutters will be forest green, doors will be white and the roofing will be silver. Lockwood says that would allow the building to tie into the natural surroundings, which became a focus after thoughts from the township committee were heard roughly eighteen months ago.
Originally CPLL had turned in a suggestion to the township committee for the facility to resemble ones in other towns such as Nottingham and Bordentown, which have mainly a large, nondescript metal building which Lockwood says “just serves the purpose.” The township was clear that such a design would not work for Plainsboro. He says the township asked CPLL to make sure that the colors and details, including windows, doors and weather vanes, would be “esthetically pleasing” so the facility could adhere to the park’s overall beauty.
“The township was very specific in regards to aesthetics. They wanted something that did not look like a warehouse and they wanted something that looked very pleasing to the eye. You don’t want something red or something that would just stand out. Green will match the color of the trees for the majority of the year until the leaves fall,” Lockwood said.
Sheehan says in the administration’s view the project is shaping up well.
“They were able to respond to our concerns and I think the architect’s rendering is really quite fine. We wanted to share that with the committee before we take the next steps with them, which will be for them to continue in construction preparations and work with our professional staff as it pertains to that,” Sheehan said,
#b#Benefits to kids#/b#
With the absence of an indoor training facility to use, Lockwood says Plainsboro little leaguers were at a slight disadvantage as many of the little leagues in CPLL’s district have indoor facilities, including West Windsor. That left Plainsboro kids with few options for baseball-specific training spots in the immediate area.
“Up until two months ago there was Extra Innings in East Windsor, but it’s gone out of business. It was probably a 15-minute ride to get there and kids would have to pay to get in. With this facility members of our little league won’t have to do that, and in essence it’s right in our backyard. There’s a lot to do with it in the offseason as people will have the opportunity to work out in there,” Lockwood says.
Lockwood says there’s a huge gain with kids being able to work on maintaining their arm strength.
“Pitchers typically pitch just the two to three months a year of a season, and when you go back nine months later and start pitching again you’ve lost some of the skills. Instead of having to start all over again kids can practice all year round,” he said.
Most importantly, Lockwood says the facility will keep baseball or softball-obsessed kids away from television.
The concept for a baseball infield inside the facility will help coaches develop players’ fielding abilities and simulate hits that go between the bases and down the lines. Pitching is another aspect of baseball that can be greatly improved with such a practice area, Lockwood says.
The facility will offer a unique hybrid with traditional batting cages as well. Players can practice their hitting before or after working on infield skills.
“There will be a netting system inside where we” be able to set up between four and five tunnels for hitting, so at any one time we could have four or five kids there practicing while others do drills. When you pull the nets away it will be a full infield,” Lockwood said.
The field will be made of a material similar to astroturf, although Lockwood says the grass will be slightly taller to simulate real grass infields. Therefore children will wear sneakers and not their usual baseball cleats to preserve the turf.
According to Lockwood, a CPLL board member will most likely be put in charge of the building’s maintenance. Cleaning after practices will be voluntary for coaches and players.
The CPLL has not come to deciding on the facility’s hours of operation with the township. Lockwood says ideally parents will drop children off for hour-long workouts, perhaps once a week during the off-season. The CPLL is working with the township to figure out if there can be an area where parents and others can sit and watch indoor practice sessions, but a crowd could not gather.
“The facility is really designed for not more than 12 people. It’s not going to be a place where there’s a bunch of coaches and kids at any one time,” he said.
Lockwood’s oldest son, now 13, graduated from the CPLL ranks last season but his two younger children are still active. His 10-year-old son Justin plays baseball while his 8-year-old daughter JoAnn plays softball in the CPLL.
Lockwood grew up playing baseball in the town of Owego, New York, half-an-hour southeast of Ithaca. His father was a high school principal while his mother was a homemaker.
Lockwood played baseball through his high school years and went on to attend Cornell University, where he earned a B.A. in Economics. He currently works as a manager at Wegmans grocery store in Woodbridge.
At the February 8 meeting, committee member Dr. Narun Nabi joked with Deputy Mayor Neil Lewis and Lockwood that he would be overseeing construction of the facility because he lives just around the corner from the site. Lockwood smiled and promised that construction crews would keep the noise down for Nabi. Once it opens there shouldn’t be large crowds and an abundance of noise either, just plenty of smiles for the community’s parents and kids.
