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SCHENECTADY
Blaze hands Little League a loss Organization was not insured against fire
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

    A city Little League lost thousands of dollars in equipment in a shed fire Monday, a league official said.
    Now league officials are left to clean up the damage and replace the lost equipment, without help from insurance.
    The fire broke out Monday afternoon at the JC Little League’s Fourth Street field. A shed there burned, taking with it between $7,000 and $9,000 worth of field maintenance equipment, league treasurer John Wilson said.
    The cause of the fire remained unclear Tuesday. Fire Chief Robert Farstad said it remained under investigation.
    But whatever caused it, officials say they’ll still have to replace what was lost.
    “The only ones affected are the kids,” Wilson said.
    The league, which includes children from Bellevue and upper Union Street areas, has just over 300 children participating, ranging in age from 5 to 12. The Fourth Street site is used mainly for the younger children, he said.
    Games are usually played Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with makeup games played in between.
    There were games scheduled for tonight, but they have been canceled to allow for the shed to be cleaned up. Wilson said they didn’t want the children to walk past it before it was cleaned up.
    Inside the shed was a tiller and a new lawn mower. Game gear and bases were also stored there.
    If the shed fire turns out to be vandalism, it wouldn’t be the first time a local baseball league has been affected. In 2006, the Sche- nectady Belmont Babe Ruth Baseball League discovered its Golf Road field storage building had been ransacked over that winter.
    The Monday fire also followed a vandalism spree the day before at the Mont Pleasant Middle School athletic field. Six juveniles, ages 9 to 12, broke into a storage shed and took or damaged items, police said. The Little League has liability insurance to cover injuries and damage done during games, but not for property.
    Wilson said it’s been hard to justify asking parents to pay more than they already do.
    “We’re usually good at being careful to lock everything up,” Wilson said. “But you can’t do much about a fi re.”
    Anyone wishing to help, Wilson said, can contact the league through its Web site at jclittleleague.org.