DAR CONNECT PAST, PRESENT TO BENEFIT VETS, PAGE 4
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50¢ Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Seeing and needing green
Litchfield Park Little League renovates fields with new sod, needs donations
by Rich Ott assistant editor
LADIES’ NIGHT West Valley women compete in roller derby — Page 10.
A string of donations might have saved Little League baseball in Litchfield Park. Because of the state of its baseball fields, which are on the grounds of Litchfield Elementary School, many children had stopped playing in the league. “No one wanted to play in Little League
anymore,” said Mike Hirth, the president of Litchfield Park Little League. The main reason given, “We’re going to break an ankle,” he said. The fields were uneven and filled with gopher
holes. “You go after a grounder and it hits a bump and shoots in a different direction,” said Ken Axford, the director of construction at Litchfield Elementary. That’s not the case anymore thanks to donations of grass, equipment, supplies and money.
Avondale, Goodyear host “A Tale of Two Cities” to celebrate state’s 100th birth- day. See photos on Page 13.
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Volume 26, No. 92 28 Pages 1 Section
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happy, they did a fantastic job.” The school is in the middle of its own construction work — an $8 million project that will erect a new cafeteria, gymnasium and classrooms — however, all the work that was done on the field, which included $35,000 worth of sprinklers, was accomplished through the private sector. The result is very much public, as pupils play on the now level field before school every morning. And soon, there will be plenty of Little Leaguers using the fields, too.
“It looks beautiful,” Axford said. “I’m very
View photo by Michael Clawson
LITTLE LEAGUE ORGANIZER MIKE HIRTH, right, and prominent donor Bill Brainard stand on new sod recently planted at Litchfield Elementary School Feb. 22 in Litchfield Park. The grass came from Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Woman dogged by stray cats
by Brent Whiting staff writer
woman who is stumped for a solution to a nagging feline problem. “I’m overloaded with cats,” said Lillian Reed, 70, who lives in an agricultural area near Maricopa County 85 and Southern Avenue west of Goodyear.
Cats continue to show up at her doorstep and won’t go away, Reed said.
Most of the cats are feral, or wild, but a few are domesticated, leading Reed to suspect that people are dropping off cats in the area and then simply driving away.
them,” Reed said last week. She estimated that as many as 20 cats now roam her mobile-home property. Reed, a widow, has managed to find new
“I need somebody to come out here and take There is no relief in sight for a West Valley
homes for two stray dogs and a goat that also have showed up, but said that cats are an entirely different matter.
“I hope somebody can figure out what to do with them,” she added.
Reed readily admitted that the cats are being fed, thus providing them with no incentive to wander elsewhere.
On one hand, she cannot afford the monthly cost of $50 to $60 for cat food, Reed said. On the other hand, she cannot tolerate watching the cats starve.
View photo by Michael Clawson
She said her son, Donald, 46, who is handicapped and receiving treatment for thyroid cancer, has undertaken the responsibility of feeding the cats. “He can’t stand them being hungry,” she said. “He has got a big, soft heart.” Some of the female cats are expecting, so things will only get worse once the kittens start
LILLIAN REED stands near her home that has been overrun by stray cats Feb. 21 in Buckeye.
arriving, Reed added.
Reed also said she has unsuccessfully sought help from Maricopa County Animal Care & Control and from the Arizona Humane Society.
(See Cats on Page 2)
Last year 295 children signed up for the spring season of LPLL; this year there are 350. “It’s kept baseball alive in Litchfield Park,” Hirth said of the two-month project. And if not for the timely help of individuals, such as Litchfield Park resident Bill Brainard, it
(See Green on Page 2)
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