Town might buy Hedlin's ballfield site

 


The youth league baseball season is weeks off, but the first pitch has already been thrown.

Only in this case it’s a sales pitch.

The Hedlin family, which since the early 1950s has leased to La Conner a near-two acre property facing Maple Avenue for use as a community sports field, has offered to sell the property outright to the Town.

Hardball isn’t part of the deal.

The Hedlins are making the ballfield site – an 80,000-square foot public use pocket nestled between residences and farmland – available at a discounted price, Mayor Ramon Hayes confirmed last week.

“What’s important to the Hedlin family,” he said, “is that the property be utilized for the good of the community.”

Should the $620,000 transaction occur, at least 25 per cent of the property would be designated as a public park, Hayes said.

The Town, he said, has until the end of spring to decide whether to pursue a purchase.

“We’re looking for a simple transaction,” said Dave Hedlin, a La Conner High alum and former school board member. “Our desire is to get it in the hands of the Town with the least kerfuffle as possible.”

Hayes said the Town would spend a couple years developing a model plan for use of the property in a way that reflects the community’s goals and values.

A multi-generational pioneer family with deep roots in Skagit Valley’s diversified agricultural scene, the Hedlins recently purchased the adjoining Cram farm along the southeast edge of La Conner. Selling the Maple Avenue ballfield would allow them to recoup some of that outlay.

The Town, in turn, would gain a new park and could benefit financially depending on how the remaining 75 per cent of the Maple Avenue parcels are developed, said Hayes.

“We would be committed to developing a plan that creates something that is in keeping with the character of the community,” he said.

“It checks off several boxes,” Hayes added. “It’s a win-win situation.”

During the two-year planning window, the Town would be able to seek out potential sources of grant funding as well, he said.

Hedlin is also in favor of a deliberative approach.

“This community,” he said, “has never suffered from doing things too slowly.”

Hedlin said the ideal would be for the bulk of the property to remain a multi-purpose ballfield, where in the off-season it has often welcomed everyone from dog-runners to kite-fliers to folks practicing fly fishing.

“Think of all the memories that have been made there,” he said. “All the soccer games and kids getting their first taste of tee-ball.”

Hedlin has plenty of memories from his own youth of big games drawing large crowds at that ballfield.

“Cars would be lined up behind the outfield fence,” he said, “and there was hardly a time when a windshield didn’t take a hit. I remember Joe Reinstra having a ’58 Pontiac that took one.”

Depending on what transpires, Hayes and Town Administrator Scott Thomas anticipate future discussions with La Conner Schools and the Swinomish Tribal Community to consider options for development of new youth baseball and softball diamonds.

“We’re just in the beginning stages,” he said, “but we have talked to the youth league to let them know this might happen.”

Hayes expressed gratitude that the Hedlins reached out to the Town and said public feedback will be sought throughout the process.

“The Hedlin family trusts the Town Council with meeting the community’s goals,” he said.

 

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