By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The City Council appears headed back to where it started out on the sale of the Mayor Gaston A. Ayotte Jr. Little League Field at the corner of Providence Street and Smithfield Road.

The council tonight will take up an offer to purchase the city-owned property by state Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt as the only bidder currently interested in the transaction.
Baldelli-Hunt had offered to purchase the field last summer under a bid of $1.1 million that included a payment toward construction of a replacement playing field at the city’s Barry Field athletic complex.
But after hearing some public criticism of her interest in the property for potential commercial development, Baldelli-Hunt withdrew her winning bid and allowed the council to seek other possible offers for the property.
The youth baseball field’s location on the corner of Providence Street and Route 146-A was viewed by city officials as making it a valuable commercial asset and a new source of tax revenue for the financially strapped community.
But while receiving a subsequent bid of $1.1 million from the Churchill & Banks commercial development firm, that offer was never consummated and the city went out to bid a third time this winter.
Baldelli-Hunt submitted the only bid for the property under that round, Joel D. Mathews, city director of planning and development, notes in a letter to the council.
The representative’s new bid was of $625,000 Mathews said, a sum less than the minimum amount sought under the city’s request for bids of $750,000.
Baldelli-Hunt was given an opportunity to amend her bid to an acceptable level or request a refund of her deposit, and she chose to amend her proposal to the advertised minimum of $750,000.
The change comes as the area’s commercial market shows little sign of new commercial construction, Mathews noted in his letter.
“The $750,000 minimum price is based on our assessment of the current market for a commercial property of this size. It should be recognized that substantial fill material will be needed in order to provide at required vehicular access from Great Road, North Smithfield,” he said.
While the original plan called for a construction of a new Little League field to serve the Bernon/Fair-North Little League group now using Ayotte, Mathews said the Public Works Department has identified the existing Menard Field near Waterview Apartments as a suitable replacement site.
The middle school girls softball team currently uses that field but can move its program to the Mayor Charles Baldelli Field at Cold Spring Park that current serves the high school girls softball program and the former mayor’s senior men’s softball team.
Menard Field, which has lighting, could be upgrade to Little League use at a cost of $100,000, Mathews said.
Baldelli-Hunt could not be reached for comment about the proposal on Friday.
But City Councilman William D. Schneck said he would be supporting the sale on Monday given the city’s current financial crisis. The council would need to grant two votes of approval for passage of the ordinance covering the sale.
“Basically we need the money,” Schneck said. While Schneck could not say how his peers on the council would view the new sales offer and he also has a few questions about the plan, the use of Menard Field did seem to be a good alternative for the Bernon program.
“It does have lights and the middle school girls can play at Cold Spring Park,” Schneck said of the potential shift in uses.