JACKSON TWP — A handful of Evans City residents attended the Seneca Valley School Board meeting Monday night and voiced their displeasure with a decision to turn a baseball field into a football field at Evans City Elementary School.

Workers last week seeded the infield of the baseball diamond to make the entire surface grass. Athletic Director Heather Lewis stated previously that the playing surface had become unsafe for football teams that use the field.

Resident Julie Maze said her five children will no longer be able to play baseball or softball in Evans City since the only field left is too close to Route 68.

Any child over the age of 10 could easily hit a ball over the fence at that field and on to the busy highway, she said.

Maze added that she got a scholarship to play softball in college, a scholarship that had its origins in her learning how to play the game in Evans City.

Paula Purvis concurred, saying she didn’t understand why more football fields were needed when there’s plenty in Cranberry Township.

She added that Mike Del Duca, the president of the Seneca Valley North Football Association, did something “that really didn’t need to be done” in seeding the field.

Resident Michael Wendereusz said the fields had been used for more than 40 years jointly as a football and baseball field.

He questioned how the football association, which isn’t affiliated with the district, could be allowed to change school property.

“How does a nonschool program have the right to ruin something that’s been there for 40 plus years?” he said.

School officials did approve the work.

Lewis said earlier in the meeting that her highest concern is the safety of the students who use those fields, and that she stands by the “beneficial decision” to sod the infield of the baseball diamond.

In addition, Lewis said she had no requests on file from any athletic organizations asking to use the field in question for baseball.