RANDOLPH — The Randolph Town Board will give all the help it can to youth athletic organizations that utilize Weeden Park.

At the board’s recent meeting, officials of Randolph Youth Soccer and Randolph Area Baseball asked for separate assistance to accommodate their respective youth sports seasons. At the same time, the board also agreed to help construct a permanent arrangement for the park to accommodate athletic organizations.

Since both athletic groups currently utilize the Weeden Park facilities at the same time of year, accommodations and alterations have to be made to the field on a regular basis. RYS has to alter the fields to ensure there will be enough room to practice for their games.

Previous discussions were brought to the board as early as November 2018 in order to help reach a solution to the problem. They have been initiated by officials from Randolph Central School, the Randolph Youth Soccer Association, town representatives and Randolph Area Baseball.

The board was approached by Randolph Youth Soccer president Tim Pence and 12-and-Under-Girls Coach Reid Smith to accommodate the upcoming season. Currently only five soccer teams of RYS will use Weeden Park this year. Of these teams two will be based at Weeden Park.

The facilities are used for soccer in the spring and fall. Up to 88 children will use the field in the spring while nearly 240 will use the field in the fall.

“I am asking for help in figuring out how we can create or find more space,” Pence said adding that the issue pertains to all sports played or equipped for play in Weeden Park.

Pence said the lack of spacing is impeding the ability for teams to use their assigned playing spaces.

“Right now we are struggling for field space,” Pence said.

“We have been able to figure out a way to squeak out two (soccer) fields that we intend to use for the two youngest groups (in RYS),” Smith said. “We found two spots where we think we could work and stay away from the baseball fences.”

Pence and Reid also said that help is needed from the town to fill in holes in the field. The organization specifically asked for help from the town as they are suffering from financial loss dating back almost four years.

“Sometime between three to four years ago we had money stolen somewhere around $12-14,000 from the organization,” Pence said. “We’ve been slowly trying to rebuild, we just don’t have the funds.”

Pence also explained that prior to their hardships, RYS was able to lease the soccer field at Faith Bible Chapel. Now they are unable to use fields for lack of insurance and because the organization has no means to mow fields.

RAB president Brandon Walters then proposed help from the town for improvements to the Weeden Park baseball facilities. Walters said that this particular area of the park needs two new dugouts. While no final figures were available, Walters said that the total cost of the project would be known by June.

“We will help out in any way possible,” Town Supervisor Dale Senn said.

In other news, Town Clerk Gretchen Hind announced that she had applied for the Ralph Wilson Grant for improvements to Weeden Park. The grant provides monetary funds ranging from $250,000 to $3 million for athletic facilities in counties of Western New York and Southeast Michigan.

The board also plans to inform residents to define where on Main Street they live when dialing 911. Councilman Nate Root said he was approached to discuss the issue. He said that 911 dispatchers currently need to ask callers if they live in West Randolph or East Randolph when determining where to send emergency services. Often the lack of such information has resulted in emergency workers being sent to an incorrect address. The system designation used for these areas are ER (East Randolph) and WR (West Randolph).