Resident to Town: pay for public’s damage

Santna Woody Long says that batted balls from the town of Stratfords High Park have broken about six windows and made many dents in the aluminum siding of his house over the 35 years that he and his wife have lived at 112 Liberty Street adjacent to the park. In August of this year, Long submitted a request for the town of Stratford to pay about $12,000 for replacement of the siding, because, he said, he would not be able to sell the house after replacing only the damaged pieces of siding because colors would not match.

Town Attorney Tim Bishop said he is not recommending that the town pay for such damage.

Long said that over at least 15 years he has called the police and contacted U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the towns assistant town manager, and Councilman Jason Santi to get the town to resolve the problem of people batting balls against his house. Long said he received no satisfactory response.

Long said he got the attention of Mayor John Harkins and Chief of Staff Marc Dillon in July 2012 after Long addressed the Town Council about his complaint.

This past summer the town of Stratford removed the baseball field at High Park that Long was complaining about and converted the space for soccer use. Since then no balls have hit the house, according to Long.

Said Dillon, The issue came to the mayors office, and they took it to the council to alleviate Longs issue and help with the need for more soccer fields.

Long said, I feel good about the changes they made. But, he added, the damage was already done. I put up with it for 35 years. The town has violated my rights to protection. They should have never put the ball field there.

High Park existed when the Longs moved to their home, Long said. The baseball field was built with the outfield adjacent to the Longs property where the house is close to the property line.

Town attorneys statement

Bishop replied to The Stars inquiry in writing. Im definitely not recommending that the Town pay for damage done by one private party to another private partys property. The fact that the person creating the harm may have been standing on Town property when they caused the damage is really immaterial. The Connecticut Legislature enacted a statute which among other things absolves the Town from liability for discretionary acts (such as how to locate, maintain or enclose a ballfield) or the acts of persons who are not employees, etc. of the Town.

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Resident to Town: pay for public’s damage