LaGrange Town Manager: "We Cannot Accommodate You"

All the members of the Dutchess R/C club wanted was a place from which to operate. They thought they'd found it at Overlook Park in the New York town of LaGrange.

Nope. It wasn't meant to be.

"We cannot accommodate you," LaGrange Supervisor George Wade III told a half-dozen club members at a recent town hall meeting. "It would be illegal for us to lease it to you." Wade was quoted in the Poughkeepsie Journal.

That meant no grass strip in the town park, as envisioned by the R/C club members. There would be no regular flights near downtown. That created safety concerns acknowledged even by members of the club itself.

But what apparently doomed the venture wasn't worries about the safety of passers-by. Instead, it was a problem with leasing part of the park to a private organization.

"You can't allow public property for a private use," town attorney Ron Blass told the club. "I don't think the law accommodates this particular use."

But that answer wasn't good enough for Dutchess member Robert Zuznis. "I just wonder why this sport is being treated differently than soccer or football?" he asked.

The answer: Pop Warner football in LaGrange has more than 1,000 members -- all town residents. None of the Dutchess club members live in LaGrange, according to the Journal. and besides Councilman Gary Beck Sr. said, "Pop Warner is regulated through the town recreation department."

The story still might have a happy ending. "What we can do is come up with a short list of potential sites in a week or 10 days," Wade said.

FMI: www.lagrangeny.org