Athletics at Habernickel Delayed 'Til Late Summer, Early Fall

The sometime in April won't relieve the playing time crunch for sports teams – not this summer anyway.

According to Fields Committee liaison Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh, because of a delay in adding seed and an irrigation system to the new park on the West Side, the grass won't be ready in time for summer sports.

"Realistically, the sports groups agreed that even if we put the irrigation system in, seed it, plant it and hopefully it will grow – they felt it would be detrimental for us to start using Habernickel until the late summer, early fall," Walsh explained to the council Wednesday night. "The reason being...our contract with Vernieri Brothers [the contractor] is that they're going to give us one seed, prep it, seed it and get it ready for us. If we use it too early and destroy the field, those extra costs are on us."

Plans for Habernickel, , include a parking lot, walking path, playground, and a transformation of a grass field — currently used for youth soccer, golf clinics and lacrosse — into a mixed-use field with 100 yards of multi-purpose space, as well as the 60-foot baseball diamond.

Walsh said the fields delay can be largely attributed to the contractor carefully sorting debris from the . A light scraping of the field was done with a seeding, but another top soil and final planting are still needed to firm and grow, she said.

"Everyone has a fear if we use it too soon...it's not going to be worth it," Walsh said Wednesday.

In a followup interview Thursday morning, Walsh said sports groups are making due with the delay. 

Maroons Soccer, which has used habernickel for tryouts, was able to secure an indoor facility, she said; village officials are looking to relocate the Parks & Recreation golf program; and baseball groups are using virtually every other available field in the village, according to Walsh.

"Everybody's being cautious because they want Habernickel to look wonderful," she said.