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For years, Newark Charter School has been looking for a new baseball field for its student-athletes. With limited space on its own campus, the school proposed expanding into the city of Newark’s Folk Memorial Park, a 30-acre public space known for its lush greenery, walking trails and diverse wildlife. The idea was to transform a portion of the park’s forested and wetland areas into a baseball and softball complex, one that school officials said would provide much-needed space for the youth.
But that proposal immediately sparked outrage among many Newark residents, particularly those who live near the park and view it as an irreplaceable environmental sanctuary. For weeks, opposition grew as community members organized, wrote letters to city officials and spread awareness about what they say was a threat to one of Newark’s last natural habitats.
The tension came to a head Monday night when Newark City Council, faced with an unexpectedly strong community presence — many wearing bright green “Save Folk Park” shirts — voted 5 to 1 to halt all discussions with Newark Charter regarding the expansion, even though the proposal wasn’t even listed on the meeting’s agenda.
“The Folk plan as it exists or any plan in Folk probably does not have a path forward,” Deputy Mayor Travis McDermott said before introducing a motion. “I’m going to make a motion to have the city council cease talks with Newark Charter School in reference to the Folk Park Baseball Project.”
The decision came after weeks of debate in the community, with more than 150 emails, both in support of and against the project, flooding McDermott’s email inbox.
Despite the divided opinions, McDermott’s motion ultimately passed. The vote meant that the city would no longer consider Folk Park as a location for the baseball field, effectively shutting down Newark Charter’s proposal unless there was a proposition of another location.
Not everyone agreed with the decision.
Councilman Jason Lawhorn, who said he spent ten years working as vice president of Newark American Little League, said Newark doesn’t have the right size fields.
“One of the big issues is that some of the existing fields just aren’t large enough and don’t have access that enables fields,” he said.“I can give you examples, I coached 8-year-old, 9-year-old and 10-year-old all-star teams and I wasn’t allowed to have practice at Barksdale. I wasn’t allowed to have practice at Dickey Park because they’re not large enough and you’re not allowed to hit baseballs there.”
Lawhorn, the lone vote against the motion, expressed frustration because there is not one park that provided a sizable baseball field. While acknowledging environmental concerns, he believed the issue deserved more public debate rather than being shut down entirely.
“To just kill this idea without any notice to anybody, I’m very surprised that this has come up out of nowhere tonight to just stop talking about this,” he said. “I think we need to go through the process and have a public conversation.”