OLEAN — Wes Long and his “team” are scouting baseball fields in Olean and five other Cattaraugus County communities to select ballfields for travel-team tournament play next year.
On April 26, Cattaraugus County lawmakers voted 15 to 2 to provide $550,000 to upgrade 12 to 15 municipal and privately owned baseball fields. Another $50,000 is being made available for repairs to other Little League baseball fields in other areas of the county.
Olean Little League president for the past three years, Long sought two years ago to get the County Legislature to invest in the county’s youth baseball fields, but failed to get much support from county lawmakers.
This time, Long, who owns Good Times of Olean, lined up support of county legislators by selling the project as an economic development project.
By staging two tournaments in 2018 and four in 2019, the county could make most of its $600,000 investment back in additional sales taxes and bed taxes, Long said. The tournaments would involve up to 72 teams from a wide area of the region.
The $550,000 in county surplus funds set aside for the tournament fields is about half the money that will be invested in those fields. Long is looking to raise a similar amount in private funding for the efforts.
Long, who has two sons on travel baseball teams, has seen the impact of a large tournament on an area firsthand. He wants to bring that type of experience to Cattaraugus County.
The region has so much to offer visitors, Long points out. He wants to direct players, parents and family members to kayak on the Allegheny River and visit Rock City Park. Allegany has lodging and St. Bonaventure University and Portville has a top-notch ropes course and Sprague’s Maple Farms restaurant.
While tournament teams are in Salamanca, there’s the Seneca Allegany Casino and Allegany State Park nearby. Ellicottville has plenty of lodging, golf, dining and the Sky High Adventure Park. Franklinville, another tournament town, has plenty of camping nearby and historical interests.
St. Bonaventure University’s baseball team will be invited to stage some clinics during tournament weekends, Long said. In that respect, it could act as a recruiting tool.
“It is a hell of a community project,” Long said in an interview Wednesday at his office at Good Times of Olean. “It’s a good shot in the arm for economic development.”
With a total of 10 to 12 tournament days, “the rest of time, our local kids are playing on better ballfields,” Long said.
Other Long team members include Dave Swain of Portville, Tony Capito of Olean, John Sheehan of Salamanca and Harley Butler of Franklinville. He spoke recently with Ellicottville Mayor John Burrell and the Ellicottville Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m talking to the owners of the fields and we are looking at a participation agreement,” Long said. In some cases, the fields are owned by a municipality, some are owned by a Little League group and some are privately owned.
Long said he would “love to break ground in early August.” That would give new grass time to take hold before winter and be ready to go in April 2018.
“We need to get the work done and replant the grass,” he said. “We’re looking at all the tournament fields now, assessing what they will need. We’re reaching out to the property owners.”
Those assessments and recommendations will go to the Development and Agriculture Committee, which will authorize disbursements. The Olean Business Development Corp. will oversee the financial aspects of the projects.
Olean will likely have up to six fields centered on the Forness Park ballfields. The other communities — Allegany, Portville, Salamanca, Ellicottville and Franklinville — would each have two tournament fields.
“Some fields will take a lot work, while others will take less,” Long said.
“Then, we’ll move forward, soliciting bids from professional contractors,” Long said. Some of the Olean fields are in need of drainage. Others need fencing or other renovations.
“Tournament play is the basis for this project,” Long said. As a businessman, he said he appreciates the County Legislature having a healthy surplus, but the time comes when you need to return some of it to taxpayers.
“The dollars and cents clicked,” Long said. The investment would be returned to the county in the form of increased visitors’ sales taxes and bed taxes. That’s not including the additional funds for restaurants and shops the tournament visitors would be spending.
“The bonus is that our kids are playing on better fields,” Long said.
