The Town of North Hempstead announced the completion of repairs last month to the Herricks Ball Field, a county park. The repairs were part of an agreement signed by the town in March to renovate four county ball fields this spring in preparation for the upcoming little league season.

"This is a great partnership between the town and the county," said Supervisor Jon Kaiman. "The county gets better parks and the kids in the town get better ball fields."

"Being familiar with Herricks Ball Field for many years it is a truly welcomed pleasure to see that the Town of North Hempstead and Supervisor Kaiman have taken the responsibility of renovating and upgrading this much needed little league baseball field," added Tony Camilleri, chairman of Merillon Athletic League. "It is now more palatable for manager and coaches to schedule games at the field with the new and improved conditions."

The renovations to the park, which is located south of Hillside Avenue along Herricks Road, included: professionally re-grading the ball field, repairs to the backstop and the fence along the water shed line, removal of the overgrowth and poison ivy along the fence line, and reseeding and fertilizing of the outfield area. In addition, the town has also done a full clean-up of the playground area, removing all the old railroad ties and debris from the area, and filling in holes with top soil.

"We are all very happy to see that the field is getting some attention," said George Thomas, a resident of Manhasset Hills and coach of the Merillon Little League Upper-Farm Giants. "Over the years the field has gotten steadily worse. The dugouts were a mess, fences were torn, divots were all over the infield and it always seemed to be under puddles of water. No one was excited about playing here. Now all the trees have been trimmed back, fences mended, the debris is gone and the infield is in the best shape I have ever seen it. But the most important part is it's a better, safer field for the kids to play and the parents like that too!"

The town has committed to maintaining the park throughout the summer. The ball field will be weeded, restriped and top-dressed daily, and the grass will be cut on a by-weekly basis.