College Point Athletic Field Gets Green Light Work To Start On Long Delayed Project Next Spring

Plans for the long-delayed, controversy-wracked, College Point Athletic Field were overwhelmingly approved by Community Board 7, last Monday.
The move culminates a more than two-decade battle by College Point families to develop a large central sports center for their children.
The Parks Department plan calls for the construction of a giant 22-acre multi-sport athletic facility in four phases. The first unit is expected to be completed in spring 2002.
Costing an estimated $8 million in city, state and federal funds, the initial unit of the project will contain baseball and little league baseball fields, as well as a roller hockey rink on a 5.5-acre site on Ulmer St., between 25 and 26 aves., adjacent to the old Flushing Airport.
Ultimately, an expanded sports complex will occupy 22 acres and contain two baseball fields, two little league fields, two soccer fields, a football field, a roller hockey rink, and a quarter-mile running track. The giant facility will then be serving an estimated 1,400 College Point youngsters enrolled in various local sports leagues.
Built by the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), the handicapped-accessible facility will also include a giant comfort station, grandstands, pathways, trees and bushes. The park designers have even promised to plant evergreen trees in the vicinity of the roller rink in order to minimize winter leaf droppings on the rink surface.
Until 1996, construction of the athletic center was conducted by the College Point Sports Association, when disaster struck. The Sanitation Department closed down the project because of charges of "illegal dumping" on the proposed athletic facility.
Construction languished for four years while the contractor and sports association members appealed the ruling, environmental agencies inspected the facility for toxic wastes, and youngsters scrambled for new play sites.
Since then, the Sanitation Department crews have removed in excess of 15,000 tons of the illegal fill from the proposed play area.
According to Gene Kelty, head of the College Point Task Force, since the designs have already been approved by the Art Commission, Parks Department, and C.B. 7, construction of the new sports facility will be conducted on the following schedule:
 Clearing and removal of debris by the Sanitation Department will be completed February 2001.
The first phase of the project will be completed in spring 2002.
Funding for this construction initial phase is diversely non-partisan: the Mayors Office is providing $5 million, and another $1 million was generated by Councilman Mike Abel ($500,000). Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn ($500,000), State Senator Frank Padavan ($250,000), and Congressman Joseph Crowley ($100,000).
"I am pleased that College Point is receiving Federal assistance to clean up this park area," said Crowley. "With so few open spaces left in the City, we owe it to the people of College Point to restore the College Point Sports Complex to its original condition."
The College Point Sports Association is composed of the following six member groups: College Point Roadrunners and Track Club; First Sports Club of College Point (soccer); College Point Softball; College Point Roller Hockey; College Point Athletic Club (football).