Softball League Settles Dispute With Residents

The Batgirls took the T-ball field at Arroyo Elementary School this week, some clad in stretch shorts and caps, others in dresses and Mary Janes, all of them ready for practice.

The girls, ages 4, 5 and 6, ran through their exercises, oblivious of the hard-won battle for the field.

“It was more of an issue for parents and coaches,” said coach Tammy Richardson, not missing a beat as she called to the girls to run in place and shake out their shoulders and arms.

But clearly, it was good to have the girls back on their own field, after six weeks of practicing on a patch of grass between the four other softball fields at the Arroyo school.

“It was very confusing,” said parent Kristy Peterson. “There was no dugout and no baseline. They were just out there running around all over the place.”

The battle pitted the Simi Valley Girls Softball League against some residents of an area known as the Greek tract in southwest Simi Valley, where the now closed Arroyo School is.

The league has been using five fields--four full softball fields and one T-ball field--since the school was closed several years ago.

But residents complained to the Simi Valley Unified School District, which still owns the school, that they had bought houses near a school, not a softball field. The league should be limited to fewer fields, they said.

The noise and traffic coming from the games Monday through Friday evenings and on Saturdays were just too much, the residents said. On Saturdays during league play, the field draws about 425 girls and about 800 parents and spectators, league officials said.

The residents even cited what they thought was documentation that supported their claim that the league was authorized to use only four fields.

While the school district investigated the problem, it suspended play on the fifth field--the T-ball field. But the district decided recently to allow play on the fifth field as long as the league follows through on promises to work with residents to reduce noise and traffic.

Judy Barry, president of the Simi Valley district school board, supported the decision to allow play on all five fields.

“Our house is very near a school,” she said. “We hear the games all the time. To me, they’re happy sounds.”

At least one resident in the Greek tract agreed.

Edin Cruz stood on his front lawn this week holding his infant daughter who was fussy with a cold as they watched the games and practice going on across the street.

“It’s a good distraction,” he said. “We enjoy it.”