THOUSAND OAKS : Pony League Gets OK to Build Field

Thousand Oaks school officials have approved an agreement that allows the Newbury Park Pony Baseball League to build a ball field at Cypress Elementary School for the youth organization’s spring season.

The compromise followed a bitter confrontation at a board meeting in December, when baseball league supporters denounced a plan to move some games from Sequoia Intermediate School to Newbury Park High School.

They complained to board members that the high school fields were not available for league use until late at night because they are used by high school athletic teams after school.

Under the new plan, approved Thursday by the board of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, the league will spend up to $30,000 to build a new field at Cypress.

“This is every penny we’ve saved for years,” said Dennis McGurk, vice president of the baseball league.

Also, about $10,000 of joint city and school district redevelopment funds will be spent to improve a field at Manzanita Elementary School for use by the league. Some of the activities in the 500-player league were moved from Sequoia because of neighbors’ complaints about noise and parking.

“Some positives do come out of negatives,” school board President Dolores Didio said.