Spring is baseball season, and as we learned earlier this week, East Butler will hear the crack of bats again soon.

In August 2023, East Butler barred the East Butler Baseball Association from the East Butler Sports Complex. The municipality expressed concern about the status of required legal clearances and proof of insurance.

At that time, the borough and the association were negotiating a contract, but the field was padlocked when the two groups reached an impasse. That led to a rupture between the association, which had maintained the fields for more than 70 years, and the borough, which owned the fields.

It also led to a lawsuit from the association, claiming its members were prevented from reclaiming the association’s property from the sports complex.

We were glad to learn in the Tuesday, March 4, edition of the Butler Eagle that despite the legal action, the two groups were still talking to each other. That led to an agreement that both sides were happy with.

East Butler’s council unanimously approved the agreement Monday, just in time for the start of a new baseball season.

Association secretary Regan Mooney summed up the feeling from her group.

“This is all we wanted,” Mooney said. “We just wanted to be back up there. We wanted to get those kids back up there.”

We think that’s a sentiment everyone involved can agree with.

— JK