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CSH in the News >
Newsday - $4.1M deal signed for soccer fields
Newsday - $4.1M deal signed for soccer fields
Aug 1, 2006 -- HUNTINGTON
$4.1M deal signed for soccer fields
BY DEBORAH S. MORRIS
Newsday Staff Writer
August 1, 2006
For months, Don Vogel and other local community activists worked with Huntington town and Suffolk County officials to turn 11.6 acres of land into athletic fields.
Yesterday, officials said they had purchased the Huntington land for $4.1 million from the Mohlenhoff family and will include soccer fields and a playground.
The day was especially emotional for Vogel, president of the Cold Spring Harbor-Huntington Soccer Club, who worked to help secure the land after the death of Brianna Titcomb, an eighth-grade soccer player from Lloyd Harbor. She died last year in a car crash in Texas.
"When I asked her mother what could we do, she said, 'Have some soccer fields named for my daughter,'" Vogel said. "It has been an inspiration of the Cold Spring Harbor-Huntington Soccer Club for the last 16 months, working diligently to get this accomplished."
The fields will serve more than 2,000 athletes from Huntington, and Vogel said part of the fields will be named for Brianna, using her nickname, Breezy.
"This land was enjoyed by generations, first as a farm and later as one of the premier local garden centers, and will be enjoyed by future generations as much-needed recreational fields for the community," County Executive Steve Levy said.
Construction on the fields is expected to start next year, officials said.
Levy, joined at a news conference on the property by Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor) and Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone, added that the cost of the property will be divided between the county and the town.
The site, on West Rogues Path, sits above one of the nine aquifers on Long Island and next to the county's 300-acre Froehlich-Wicks Farm Nature Preserve.
Levy said the purchase was a victory for open space preservation and for government working together. But there were some bumps along the way.
A plan to sell the property to the South Huntington School District to build a bus depot fell through and later the Huntington Manor Fire District tried to acquire part of the property for a training facility and substation.
"Given a choice between a new housing development, a bus depot and a fire department substation and playing fields for our kids, this was a slam dunk. There was no choice there," Cooper said.
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