The city’s re-launch of Bailey Park
Municipal government is frequently a tale of failed attempts, of civic woe compounded by familiarity: The garbage doesn’t get picked up, the pothole doesn’t get filled in, the yard across the street remains an eyesore.
For years, Uniontown’s Bailey Park was pretty much neglected. Once in a while, a ballgame would break out. Otherwise, the city’s premier playground was unused; a monument to other, better times.
Though the job is not complete, as of this spring Bailey Park is making a comeback. (If you want to see for yourself, Monday evening the Uniontown High School baseball team is scheduled to host a game against Laurel Highlands at Bailey Park.)
Recently, new outfield LED lights were installed on the larger of the park’s two diamonds. It’s made a world of difference. Bathed in light, the green outfield expanse glows. At considerable cost, the ballyard in the center of town (well, almost) looks reborn.
At high school games this spring, Bailey Park has been buzzing. When both the boys are playing baseball and the girls are playing softball, the place is wonderfully energized; it seems young again.
That’s not meant metaphorically, either. Following a recent softball game, and while a baseball game was still being played, a group of maybe six or seven young people – boys and girls who looked to be 12, 13, or 14 years old – commenced to play a sort of game on the smaller field.
There was a great deal of laughing and shouting. A girl in the outfield was doing both as she chucked a looping throw toward the infield. “I’m trying,” she cried out, not at all concerned that she was showing off a weak arm.
It was maybe the most revealing moment in an evening of revelations: build it, use it, care for it, and maybe light it, and they will come, and some will come to play with joy, if not with skill.
Skill is wildly overrated, anyway. Fun’s the thing. At least at that time and station in life.
What’s the point of a playground, if not play?
In point of fact, Bailey Park is a gathering place, too. Always has been. In the past, the park was the scene of civic and labor union rallies. Beginning in May, Bailey Park will take on a new aspect as the home of a relaunched Uniontown Farmers Market.
According to Mookie John, a former city official, the market will move from its midweek location at Storey Square on Main Street to Saturdays on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of Bailey Park.
Why the change? The newly enlarged parking space at Bailey Park is both commodious and free.
John, who remains engaged in city affairs even as he teaches full time at St. John’s grade school, said the primary reason is the market’s proximity to the Sheepskin Trail, a multi-jurisdictional walking and biking path that enters the city near Bailey Park from South Union Township.
John sketched a vision of the market teeming with customers on a typical summer Saturday morning.
The market should be up and running in the latter part of May, he said.
The Sheepskin Trail is key to everything the city hopes to achieve, at least in the short run, according to John. Work on the trail will continue, but with a hitch. It’s the old bugaboo: money. Right now, there’s not enough.
The original estimate of $350,000 has ballooned to a million, John said. Three retired railroad bridges north of Grindle Station account for most of the higher than anticipated cost.
City officials are working with the county and state in the hope of getting the money to finish the job, since the cash is probably not coming from city coffers. The city’s tax base is shot, a result of businesses and residents fleeing to the townships, or leaving the region altogether.
It’s not easy being an aging municipality with a mid-20th century downtown.
Yet optimism reigns. Electronic score boards will soon be recording runs, hits, and errors at Bailey Park, which incidentally needs additional retrofitted LED light standards to make the baseball infield as bright as the outfield.
The softball field needs significant upgrades as well.
Plenty has already been accomplished, and plenty of work remains, but for its accomplishments so far, the city deserves a shout-out.
Richard Robbins lives in Hopwood, near Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.