Salisbury Township Recreation Director Genny Baillie, the Salisbury Township Recreation Advisory Committee and Joel Schware, Lehigh Valley League baseball director for the Salisbury Youth Association, will take a few more swings at the location of a baseball batting cage in Franko Farm Park.

A motion on the SYA request for the batting cage location was tabled at the March 23 board of commissioners meeting.

Commissioners asked Baillie, the recreation advisory committee and Schware to resolve the matter.

Schware said he couldn’t attend a Franko Farm site visit by the committee because it was held on the night of a SYA event.

Board of Commissioners President James A. Brown and Vice President Robert Martucci Jr. said they are in favor of the addition of a batting cage. They, along with Baillie and township Director of Public Works John Andreas, are concerned about the location with respect to the safety of spectators and youths participating in other sports at Franko.

“What we’re looking at is approval of the location,” Brown emphasized at the March 23 meeting.

One concern is the distance of the batting cage from a volleyball court.

“If there’s a different site you want to offer, I can refer it to the recreation committee,” Baillie said to Schware at the March 23 meeting.

“Will it be available for public use?” Martucci asked about the batting cage, which Schware said SYA would fund and maintain.

“Absolutely,” Schware replied.

Said Commissioner Debra Brinton to Schware, “I would like for you, the SYA, to work it out [the batting cage location] with the recreation committee.”

Salisbury Township Acting Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich agreed. “We recommend that they [SYA and the recreation committee] talk to each other and talk this out.”

Frank Adamcik, vice chair of the Salisbury Township Recreation Advisory Committee brought the matter to commissioners at the March 9 township meeting.

Whatever location is chosen for the batting cage, it will be temporary because it will probably have to be moved when improvements are made as part of the William H. Laubach Memorial Park and Franko Farm Recreation Area Park Master Site Development Plan.

Adamcik said he had met with Leonard J. Policelli, landscape architect, project manager, Urban Research & Development Corp., Bethlehem, consultant for the master plan, at the park along Black River Road.

“It’s all in close proximity,” Adamcik said of the approximate 20 feet by 14 feet batting cage and the approximate 25 feet by 20 feet area needed for the cage’s location area.

It was stated a soccer field is about 25 feet from the batting cage. A volleyball court is about 15 feet from the cage. A storage shed is about 130 feet from the volleyball court.

Adamcik said a sloping area where a tree is located is unsuitable for the batting cage.