Parks baseball program to practice in vacant Park Ridge public works building

• Reprints

Updated: March 10, 2012 8:07AM

Park Ridge youth-baseball and -softball players will now be perfecting their swing during the off-season inside the city’s former Public Works building.

Park Ridge City Manager Jim Hock said Park Ridge Baseball/Softball will use the former service center at 1200 Elm St. for batting practice through an “inter-governmental cooperation” between the city and the Park Ridge Recreation and Park District.

“They had an immediate need and we stepped in with a facility that’s not going to be used for anything,” Hock said.

The former Public Works building and surrounding property has largely been used for storage since Nicor, which was leasing the space, moved out in December 2009. Nicor had occupied the space for nine years.

Park Ridge Baseball/Softball will be able to use the building at no charge, Hock said. The last year that Nicor leased the property, the company paid the city $250,000 annually.

Hock explained that there had been attempts to rent the property out to private companies, but doing so would have returned the land to the tax rolls. The Cook County property-tax rate was so high, Hock said, that prospective tenants were unable to afford it.

The situation was different for Nicor.

“Nicor was tax-exempt as a utility,” Hock said. “That was how we could rent it out to them at a reasonable rate.”

Park Ridge Baseball/Softball, which organizes several leagues for children and teenagers, is an affiliate of the Park Ridge Recreation and Park District. Garry Abezetian, president of Park Ridge Baseball/Softball, said the group in previous years has held winter practices inside warehouses or industrial buildings in places like Melrose Park or Elk Grove Village. The location changes each year and sometimes the organization is required to pay rent, while other years it does not, Abezetian said.

There will be charge to the organization for utilities, as the city does not pay for electricity and the cost of heating is minimal because the building’s temperature is kept at 55 degrees, Hock said. Abezetian said portable toilets will be provided for the players.

The use of the 1200 Elm St. property is not slated to go before the Park Ridge City Council. Hock cited a city policy on the use of public facilities that he said gives him the authority to sign off on such agreements.

The city has an indemnity agreement with the Park District and Park Ridge Baseball/Softball for the use of 1200 Elm St., Hock said.