Little League Field Used For Illegal Dumping
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. -- A Twin Cities little league is dealing with someone else's mess, once again.
Brooklyn Center city officials notified the group this week that its dumpsters and private property at Thurs Park and Lions Park had been used to dump trash, dirt and concrete.
The teams and city have already paid hundreds of dollars over the last few years to clean up after similar incidents.
Brooklyn Center Little League President Debbie Stoddard hopes the criminals will stop targeting the league's property so that money and energy can be used to serve the 150 children playing in the league instead of on cleanup.
"We are all volunteers, so we have been working hard at getting people to come down and participate but then they come down and they're like, 'Well, if this is just a garbage dump why would we want to play here?" Stoddard said.
Stoddard is sick of dealing with other peoples' trash.
"It's dirt, it's concrete, trees branches, a bunch of, basically, garbage," Stoddard described.
According to Stoddard, mysterious messes pile up year after year in the league's dumpsters and a field once used for overflow parking.
"They had to move the chains. They actually had to drive through [the barrier]," Stoddard said.
The city of Brooklyn Center has already paid to clean up illegal debris twice over the winter.
This time, the city asked Stoddard to take care of it since the league owns the property.
But Stoddard explained the volunteer group relies on donations.
Extra signage and some cameras haven't stopped people from piling on trash over the years.
Stoddard believes it will cost nearly $200 to clean up this round of mess.
"$100 is new catcher's gear for our teams that need new catcher's equipment," Stoddard said.
The league hopes adding more cameras or a gate might help stop any criminals, but it will take months to raise that kind of money.
"We're just hoping the neighborhood would support us and if they see anything going on like that they call the police," Stoddard said.
The city of Brooklyn Center says it recently got some grant money and is working on new proposals to redesign the park area to include more fields.
And, a more sophisticated security system will be a top priority.
